Airlines Looking for Alternatives: Air New Zealand Tests Biofuels
Recently, Virgin Airlines garnered a lot of support and criticism for their announcement that they would be experimenting with biofuels. Now, Air New Zealand has annoucned that it will begin testing a new generation of biofuel this year. With the goal of converting a portion of its domestic fleet to run on the renewable fuel source within five years, the airline will be the first in the world to test a biofuel derived from jatropha, a bush grown in India that produces seeds with a high oil content.
An airline spokesperson commented that early tests showed biofuels cost about half the price of normal aviation fuel and produced half of the environmental emissions. Of course, regulators will have to approve the fuel for “safety” before they can officially convert the fleet, but rising prices for aviation fuel and falling support of the airline industry are spurring the search for an alternative.
This is just a preliminary step and is in a research phase. Alternatives to the jatropha plant, such as algae, exist. Not to mention, availability and infrastructure for international as well as domestic flights doesn’t currently exist and won’t until airlines and fueling companies are able to reach an agreement.
Sounds like it has great possibilities. We don’t have to settle on one “best” choice, different types (algae oil, bio-mass, solar, wind, coal, etc.) could be the best choice to be made in various areas, depending on climate, water availability, soil type, etc. Anything which reduces our dependence on oil, particularly foreign oil could be a winner, even if they are no cheaper. They could eliminate oil spills, pollution, offshore drilling, need to drill in sensitive areas like ANWR, shipping expense, control by OPEC, sending our money to countries that want to kill us, and most of these are energy sources are renewable! We don’t have to drill dry holes looking for ‘em. If you can use wind power to replace an oil-powered generator. for example, that’s one step in the right direction! We’ve also gotta stop making ethanol from corn, which drives up food and feed prices, and replace that with cane ethanol (with no import tariffs or subsidies to the corn growers). We also need to encourage tropical area nations to grow cane, make ethanol, and sell it to us, helping everybody concerned. That SHOULD lower the cost of fuel, food and feed. We’re going to do great things toward energy self-sufficiency, some of them may take 5-10 years, but we’ll be amazed how quickly we’ll get there. Every step we make will reduce the demand, and subsequently reduce the cost of oil, til the day we can eliminate the need to import from enemy nations. Competition will bring prices down to their proper levels as new types of renewable fuels come on-line and their technologies mature. It will be interesting to see what the oil-producing countries do with their oil when the world no longer wants to buy it, particularly at today’s inflated prices. They’re still in the driver’s seat now, making all the money they can, because they see the handwriting on the wall. Maybe they can mix it with sand and eat it!
[...] the Ma’alaea algae facility when combined with other locally grown vegetable-oil crops, such as jatropha or [...]