PT Sinergi Oleo Nusantara

Overview

  • Founded Date April 27, 1921
  • Sectors Consultant
  • Posted Jobs 0
  • Viewed 5

Company Description

Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It’s bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at industrial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.

With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible alternatives to standard kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to various kinds of biofuel.

Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.

Jatropha is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.

In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell 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 using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic specialists for the job.

The most recent airline company to start try out new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.

One really motivating development has been the relocation far from biofuels which contend head on with food customers consequently avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in cars and trucks triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.

Hopefully in the future, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed blessing indeed if some people ended up starving simply to satisfy somebody else’s green .