Biofuels and Aviation industry

Filed in archive General on March 19, 2010

© tonrulkens

The integration of biofuel on a mass scale in the aviation industry seems imminent. We have witnessed volatility in the prices of oil coupled with scarcity and greenhouse gas emission regulations therefore there is a quick need for an alternative source of energy for this sector.

Though biofuel is a good option but lack of proper supply and distribution is hampering its proper adoption in the aviation industry which is in need for fuel. It is expected that within the next ten years, passenger planes will be flying on fuel made from plants such as jatropha, camelina etc in order to bring down the high costs and uncertainty associated with petroleum based fuels.

A number of major airlines have already carried out test flights with biofuels and it was found out that biomass based jet fuels performed better as compared to petroleum based jet fuels. Also, ASTM, an international standards setting organization, will be certifying half of Bio-SPK blends with petroleum jet fuel in the current year and this would open up opportunities for production of renewable jet fuel on a mass scale.

The future obviously holds in moving away from petroleum based fuels to alternative sources of energy which do not suffer price volatility, have a good supply and are also environment friendly.