Clean Getaway: Meat Waste Joins Biofuels At Luxury Jet Show
By Allison Lampert
LAS VEGAS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - At the world's greatest market show in Las jets are tempting purchasers with their streamlined silhouettes, plush cabins - and significantly, their use of alternative fuels.
Fuel manufacturers and jetmakers are keen to display novel kinds of air travel fuel considered less harmful to the climate, from used cooking oil to the definitely less glamorous meat waste.
Business jet operators, like airline companies, have bowed to ecological pressure on aviation and dedicated to halving carbon emissions by 2050 compared with 2005.
Their hope is that embracing sustainable fuel to suppress emissions might make service jets more attractive to environmentally conscious buyers - particularly corporations dealing with concerns over sustainability from investors or green campaign groups.
The schedule of less polluting personal jets might also spare the rich and famous the negative publicity experienced by Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan over a recent private jet journey to southern France.
Five Gulfstream jets on display in Las Vegas are using California-produced fuel from inedible beef tallow.
The current waste-based fuels include "fats, grease and oils that are byproducts of the food industry," said Bryan Sherbacow, chief industrial officer of Boston-based biofuel producer World Energy, which produces fuel from meat waste utilized by Gulfstream.
"All of our item is inedible."
Some of the other 79 aircraft on screen are anticipated to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other eco-friendly fuel mixes anticipated to be pumped at the show.
FLIGHT SHAMING
Private jets represent less than 0.1% of total annual carbon emissions internationally, however can discharge, typically, up to 20 times more carbon emissions per passenger mile than jetliners, according to the London-based private charter company Victor.
Prince Harry has safeguarded his occasional use of private jets to guarantee his family's security, and has actually stated that on the uncommon celebrations he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.
But planemakers say incidents such as the furore over his travel plan have included fresh obstacles for an industry already making every effort to justify its contribution to cutting corporate costs.
"Incidents of flight shaming involving using private jets are unfortunate when you consider that our market has provided fuel performance enhancements of 40% over the past 40 years," stated Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.
Bombardier thinks increased sustainable fuel usage will help the market make inroads with corporations and rich purchasers. According to industry information, billionaires just have a 19% company jet ownership rate.
But even an image remodeling - with jets sporting sticker labels like "this aircraft flies on eco-friendly fuels" and organisers adding alternative fuel pumps for checking out aircrafts - is not likely to satisfy all critics at the Oct 22-24 luxury jet event.
Environmentalists and some analysts stay doubtful that biojetfuels, generally mixed 50-50 with kerosene, will make a considerable influence on public understandings about luxury travel.
"No quantity of jatropha curcas or Brazil-nut fuel can make company jets look eco-friendly," stated aviation expert Richard Aboulafia.
Demand from service jet operators for sustainable fuels now far surpasses supply and their interest could drive future production, Sherbacow stated.
World Energy, which produces 40 million gallons of biofuel at its California plant, could expand production approximately 150 million gallons by 2022.
Corporate charter business and specialists are also seeing more interest from customers who wish to buy carbon credits to balance out emissions from their flights.
Brian Proctor, CEO of Mente Group, a U.S. consultancy, stated emissions contributed in a corporate jet usage research study his business recently completed for a Fortune 500 business.
"At the end of the day, I think that price, cost per hour, variety, speed and efficiency, that's still the (sales) driver. But I think people are becoming more familiar with the sustainability of operations and how it impacts the world." (Reporting By Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexandra Hudson)