It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics could start having a dig at business aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.

With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to find viable options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to various kinds of biofuel.

Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.

jatropha curcas is a genus of roughly 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 prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.

Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred 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 function as tactical consultants for the project.

The newest airline company to begin experimenting with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights utilizing a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from . This mixture, it is claimed, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.

One actually motivating advancement has actually been the move far from biofuels which complete head on with food customers thereby avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in use of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.

Hopefully in the future, airline companies and motorists will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a blended blessing indeed if some individuals ended up starving just to satisfy another person's green qualifications.