1 Clean Getaway: Meat Waste Joins Biofuels At Luxury Jet Show
Rosemarie Budd edited this page 2025-01-17 01:20:15 +01:00


By Allison Lampert

LAS VEGAS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - At the world's most significant market show in Las Vegas luxury jets are enticing purchasers with their streamlined silhouettes, plush cabins - and increasingly, their usage of alternative fuels.

Fuel producers and jetmakers are keen to showcase unique kinds of aviation fuel deemed less hazardous to the climate, from utilized cooking oil to the noticeably less glamorous meat waste.

Business jet operators, like airlines, have actually bowed to ecological pressure on aviation and dedicated to cutting in half carbon emissions by 2050 compared to 2005.

Their hope is that adopting eco-friendly fuel to suppress emissions could make service jets more attractive to environmentally mindful buyers - specifically corporations facing questions over sustainability from investors or green project groups.

The accessibility of less polluting private jets could likewise spare the abundant and well-known the unfavorable publicity by Britain's Prince Harry and his spouse Meghan over a current personal jet trip to southern France.

Five Gulfstream jets on screen in Las Vegas are using California-produced fuel from inedible beef tallow.

The most recent waste-based fuels include "fats, grease and oils that are byproducts of the food market," said Bryan Sherbacow, primary business officer of Boston-based biofuel manufacturer World Energy, which produces fuel from meat waste used by Gulfstream.

"All of our product is inedible."

Some of the other 79 aircraft on display are expected to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other eco-friendly fuel blends anticipated to be pumped at the program.

FLIGHT SHAMING

Private jets account for less than 0.1% of overall annual carbon emissions internationally, but can discharge, on average, approximately 20 times more carbon emissions per passenger mile than jetliners, according to the London-based private charter firm Victor.

Prince Harry has actually safeguarded his occasional use of private jets to guarantee his household's safety, and has stated that on the rare events he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.

But planemakers say incidents such as the furore over his schedule have actually included fresh difficulties for an industry already making every effort to justify its contribution to cutting business costs.

"Incidents of flight shaming including using personal jets are unfortunate when you consider that our industry has actually provided fuel performance enhancements of 40% over the previous 40 years," said Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.

Bombardier believes increased sustainable fuel use will assist the industry make inroads with corporations and rich purchasers. According to industry information, billionaires only have a 19% company jet ownership rate.

But even an image remodeling - with jets sporting stickers like "this aircraft flies on sustainable fuels" and organisers adding alternative fuel pumps for visiting planes - is not likely to satisfy all critics at the Oct 22-24 high-end jet event.

Environmentalists and some analysts remain doubtful that biojetfuels, typically blended 50-50 with kerosene, will make a significant effect on public understandings about luxury travel.

"No quantity of jatropha curcas or Brazil-nut fuel can make service jets look eco-friendly," stated air travel analyst Richard Aboulafia.

Demand from company jet operators for renewable fuels now far goes beyond supply and their interest could drive future production, Sherbacow stated.

World Energy, which produces 40 million gallons of biofuel at its California plant, might broaden production approximately 150 million gallons by 2022.

Corporate charter business and experts are also seeing more interest from consumers who wish to buy carbon credits to offset emissions from their flights.

Brian Proctor, CEO of Mente Group, a U.S. consultancy, stated emissions played a role in a corporate jet utilization study his company recently completed for a Fortune 500 company.

"At the end of the day, I think that rate, cost per hour, variety, speed and efficiency, that's still the (sales) motorist. But I think people are ending up being more knowledgeable about the sustainability of operations and how it affects the planet." (Reporting By Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexandra Hudson)