Clean Getaway: Meat Waste Joins Biofuels At Luxury Jet Show
By Allison Lampert
LAS VEGAS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - At the world's biggest market program in Las Vegas luxury jets are luring purchasers with their sleek silhouettes, luxurious cabins - and significantly, their usage of alternative fuels.
Fuel and jetmakers are eager to display unique types of air travel fuel deemed less hazardous to the climate, from used cooking oil to the definitely less glamorous meat waste.
Business jet operators, like airlines, have actually bowed to environmental pressure on air travel and devoted to cutting in half carbon emissions by 2050 compared with 2005.
Their hope is that adopting renewable fuel to suppress emissions might make service jets more attractive to ecologically mindful buyers - specifically corporations dealing with questions over sustainability from shareholders or green project groups.
The accessibility of less contaminating private jets might also spare the abundant and popular the negative promotion experienced by Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan over a current personal jet trip to southern France.
Five Gulfstream jets on screen in Las Vegas are utilizing California-produced fuel from inedible beef tallow.
The current waste-based fuels consist of "fats, grease and oils that are byproducts of the food industry," stated Bryan Sherbacow, primary business officer of Boston-based biofuel producer World Energy, which produces fuel from meat waste used by Gulfstream.
"All of our item is inedible."
Some of the other 79 aircraft on display screen are expected to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other sustainable fuel blends anticipated to be pumped at the show.
FLIGHT SHAMING
Private jets account for less than 0.1% of overall annual carbon emissions globally, but can emit, typically, approximately 20 times more carbon emissions per passenger mile than jetliners, according to the London-based private charter firm Victor.
Prince Harry has defended his occasional usage of personal jets to ensure his household's safety, and has said that on the unusual events he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.
But planemakers say occurrences such as the furore over his schedule have included fresh difficulties for a market currently striving to validate its contribution to cutting corporate costs.
"Incidents of flight shaming involving the use of private jets are unfortunate when you think about that our industry has delivered fuel performance enhancements of 40% over the previous 40 years," stated Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.
Bombardier believes increased sustainable fuel usage will assist the market make inroads with corporations and wealthy buyers. According to market information, billionaires only have a 19% organization jet ownership rate.
But even an image makeover - with jets sporting sticker labels like "this airplane flies on renewable fuels" and organisers adding alternative fuel pumps for going to aircrafts - is unlikely to satisfy all critics at the Oct 22-24 high-end jet event.
Environmentalists and some analysts remain hesitant that biojetfuels, typically mixed 50-50 with kerosene, will make a significant effect on public perceptions about luxury travel.
"No amount of Jatropha or Brazil-nut fuel can make service jets look eco-friendly," stated aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia.
Demand from service jet operators for sustainable fuels now far goes beyond supply and their interest could drive future production, Sherbacow said.
World Energy, which produces 40 million gallons of biofuel at its California plant, might expand production as much as 150 million gallons by 2022.
Corporate charter companies and specialists are likewise seeing more interest from clients who wish to buy carbon credits to balance out emissions from their flights.
Brian Proctor, CEO of Mente Group, a U.S. consultancy, said emissions contributed in a corporate jet utilization research study his business recently completed for a Fortune 500 business.
"At the end of the day, I believe that rate, expense per hour, variety, speed and performance, that's still the (sales) chauffeur. But I think people are becoming more familiar with the sustainability of operations and how it affects the world." (Reporting By Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexandra Hudson)