Poisonous Plants Fuel Planes
The search for alternative fuels is nothing new, but one New Zealand airline think they may have found a solution in, of all places, a poisonous plant.
This week, Air New Zealand tested fuel made from the oil of the jatropha plant as part of their search for alternatives to traditional fuel. On December 30, they flew a Boeing 747 for two hours with a combination of 50% jet fuel and 50% jatropha oil fuel.
Jatropha in an inedible shrug that grows mainly in India and Africa and has recently been grown in mass quantities for its biofuel potentials. Although it grows in arid climates and makes use of land not able to be used for food crops, it is also a labor-intensive plant with unreliable yields. So, it isn’t a miracle solution. Yet.
Air New Zealand hopes to use biofuels for about 10% of their total fuel needs by 2013.
Picture via loungefrog at sxc.hu.
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