Green flights :Airlines opt for biofuels.

• Blue green algae, the innocous jatropha plant and the fast growing camelina could power a 735,000 lb palane  soon and airlines plane manufacturers and engine companies have joined hands to use these plants along with fossil fuels to fuel the flights by 2013.
• The Airlines are planning to acheive the goal of using alternative fuels by 10% by 2017 and by 30% by 2030.
• The airlines are responsible for 2% emission of carbon in the atmosphere.The fuel cost forms 40% of their total expenditure. Hence it forms a good commercial sense to opt for some alternative fuel.
• The biofuels must be suitable for all engines of old and new aircrafts and must be able to combune with existing jet fuels.
• The better biofuels are algae, jatropha, halophytes and camelina. Algae can produce all the biofuel needed for all planes if grown in a huge water mass. The encouraging fact is that the biofuels used till now perform better than fossil fuels.
• India has good resources to produce algae. This along with sunlight and flue gas can be used to produce this fuel and these fuels should be able to bring down the prices of air tickets. It needs to be ensured that biofuels can be mass produced at a low cost or high yield. Extensive test and flight demonstration are going on so that safety is not compromised.