Commercial Flights Approved for Biofuels by 2010
Posted in Biofuels | Energy Politics | Transportation
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) wants to reduce its carbon footprints. That’s why they announced their quest to find a biofuel by 2010 for its commercial flights. Paul Steele was in New Delhi, India. He said to the reporters that IATA is serious about biofuels for commercial flights and it would be certified “by the end of next year”. Paul Steele is the head of the environmental initiatives of IATA. As we are all familiar that certification is broadly regarded as a primary technical step that could do away with some of the investment uncertainties plugging the use of high quality biofuels in aviation. IATA chief executive Giovanni Bisignani reaffirms what Paul Steele was saying. Giovanni Bisignani claims, “For the first time, air transport has the possibility of an alternative to traditional jet fuel.”
If the aviation industry can reduce its dependency on fossil fuel then it will be considered a major landmark achievement for the advocates of clean and green energy. According to IATA estimates, aviation biofuel could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent “on a full carbon life-cycle basis.” The same step will reduce 600 kilogrammes (176 pounds) of emissions per flight on a Boeing 747-400 plane.
Another good point is that the aircraft engines don’t need to be altered at all if they have to run on biofuels. It’s every manufacturer’s dream. It has been backed up by test flights by carriers intended to “decouple traffic growth from emissions growth.” It was found that biofuel and traditional fuel could be successfully blended without changes to aircraft engines. According to Paul Steele there is a hitch or hurdle. Airlines would like to control costs and procure biofuels without altering or affecting the food chain. Because there is a real danger that people will start producing bofuels related plants and neglect the cultivation of food crops because that won’t be profitable enough. Production of biofuel plants may also affect or rather strain the water supplies.
But making aircrafts biofuel dependent is just a part of IATA’s endeavor to reduce carbon in its usage, according to Bisignani. The basic purpose is to make nations aware of the fact that’s the aviation industry must be treated as a separate entity for developing and implemting cleaner fuel technologies before the upcoming international climate change talks on Copenhagen.
“If not, we face the risk of uncoordinated competitive government taxation that won’t reduce emissions but will be harmful to global economic development,” said Bisignani.