
Mission NewEnergy Limited
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Founded Date February 5, 1924
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Sectors Sales & Marketing
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Company Description
Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
It’s bad enough for some to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at business aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from rising oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover viable alternatives to standard kerosene and these up until now seem to boil down to different types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out research study and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical specialists for the task.
The current airline to start explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One really encouraging development has been the move away from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers therefore preventing a price spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed blessing undoubtedly if some individuals wound up starving simply to satisfy another person’s green credentials.