Alternative Fuel In General Aviation
Aviation industry has also been hit by the soaring crude oil prices. The growing demand for oil across the world is not being met. As a result, private airlines have had to increase the prices of the tickets. This isn’t good news for regular fliers. Especially since more and more people prefer travelling by planes nowadays. However, unknown to some of us, the aircraft industry has been experimenting with alternative fuels that can also improve the efficiency of the engines. |
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Liquid hydrogen is a fuel that can be used in jets. This is a very lightweight fuel. Hence, the fuel efficiency loss will be less on a long distance flight; but more in a short distance one. Ethanol can also be looked upon as an alternative fuel. However, ethanol requires more storage area and is a heavy fuel that can result in decrease in efficiency. Fuels such as methanol, liquid natural gas, ethanol, liquid hydrogen and a few other synthetic oils are being studied as other options. These are all bio-derived fuels. But only synthetic fuels, like carbon, natural gas and other hydrocarbons can be used to run planes.
In their present form, the other fuels raise the question of safety and efficiency. Aircraft designers might also have to re-design the engines. Biofuel has also been considered and it proves to be a good alternative; but not for planes. It is better suited to run land vehicles. Another choice is to use biofuel in ground transportation. This way crude oil can be made available to aircrafts. The reason is that plane engines aren’t very easy to work around. Besides, some of these fuels are also likely to contribute to global warming.
Combination of synthetic fuels along with fossil fuels can be considered. For example, ethanol can be used with gasoline. Till now ethanol is being experimented upon to run land transport. Hydrogen in conjunction with crude can decrease fuel consumption and lead to lesser engine noise. Although, to use these fuels efficiently, changes will have to be made in the aircraft designs per se. Like the other industries, aviation too needs to search alternative fuels to run engines on. These should be cost efficient and at the same time available in plenty.
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Search for alternative fuels has become a treasure hunt. And no wonder since it is the demand of the day. There are plenty of natural resources that are available to us for use. But very few can be utilized in their natural form. One such natural energy is wind. Let’s make an attempt to study wind as a fuel of future. 
