Flying the Friendly Green Skies

Imagine sitting on a plane getting ready to take off and the plane steward thanks you for flying the green skies. You may be sitting there scratching your head thinking….green skies I thought it was the friendly skies? Well you might want to familiarize yourself with what the phrase means because it could be the future catch phrase on commercial flights.

 

The plane steward stated the green skies since the plane you are flying on is green and good for the environment. Airlines are testing the idea of running their commercial airliners on biofuel. Just this month Boeing completed its first ever quote on quote green flight on its ecoDemonstrator 787 and turned heads while doing it. The aviation leader is making headlines by testing a green diesel and jet fuel mixture in its commercial planes. For those unfamiliar with the term green diesel it is a biofuel made from vegetable oils, waste cooking oils and wasted animal fats.[i] Different forms of biofuels are already out on the market, but green diesel is chemically different and more complex.[ii]

Though this flight was only powered on a mixture of 15 percent green diesel and 85 percent petroleum jet fuel it can still play a role in lowering carbon emissions. Research has shown that the aviation industry creates 2 to 2.5 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.[i] With green diesel the industry can reduce its carbon emissions 50 to 90 percent.  Forecasted production capacity of 800 million gallons of green diesel could supply as much as 1 percent of jet fuel demand. The price of this fuel of the future is predicted to stay around the $3 mark, which is close to the price of current fossil fuels.[ii]

Who know if the biofuel idea will work out for the aviation industry, but man I sure hope it does. Anyway that the industry is able to help curb carbon emissions and climate change is a good idea.

Sure flying the green skies may not sound as attractive as the friendly skies, but man it sounds good to our environment!

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[i] “The aviation industry is responsible for 2.5% of the world’s carbon emissions”, Jan., 6, 2015, http://inhabitat.com/aviation-industry-looks-to-emissions-trading-to-meet-environmental-goals/

[ii] “Boeing Completes World’s First Flight Powered by Green Diesel”, Dec., 4, 2014, http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/cleantech/mike_hower/boeing_carries_out_worlds_first_flight_powered_green_diesel?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=schtweets&utm_campaign=editorial

[iii] “Eco-friendly planes are coming: Boeing powers jet partly on used cooking oil”, Dec., 3,2014, http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2014/12/eco-friendly-planes-are-coming-boeing-powers-jet.html

[iv] “Boeing ecoDemonstrator 787 logs first flight with green diesel as aviation biofuel”, Dec, 4, 2014, http://www.intelligent-aerospace.com/articles/2014/12/boeing-ecodemonstrator-787-logs-first-flight-with-green-diesel-as-aviation-biofuel.html