1 Clean Getaway: Meat Waste Joins Biofuels At Luxury Jet Show

Parthenia Tressler edited this page 2025-01-12 13:01:00 +08:00

By Allison Lampert

LAS VEGAS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - At the world's most significant industry show in Las Vegas luxury jets are enticing purchasers with their sleek silhouettes, luxurious cabins - and significantly, their use of alternative fuels.

Fuel producers and jetmakers are eager to showcase unique kinds of air travel fuel deemed less damaging to the climate, from utilized cooking oil to the definitely less glamorous meat waste.

Business jet operators, like airline companies, have acquiesced ecological pressure on air travel and dedicated to cutting in half carbon emissions by 2050 compared with 2005.

Their hope is that embracing renewable fuel to suppress emissions could make service jets more appealing to environmentally mindful purchasers - especially corporations dealing with concerns over sustainability from shareholders or green campaign groups.

The schedule of less contaminating personal jets might also spare the abundant and well-known the negative promotion experienced by Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan over a recent private jet trip to southern France.

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

The latest waste-based fuels consist of "fats, grease and oils that are by-products of the food market," stated Bryan Sherbacow, chief industrial officer of Boston-based biofuel producer World Energy, which produces fuel from meat waste utilized by Gulfstream.

"All of our product is inedible."

A few of the other 79 aircraft on display are expected to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other renewable fuel mixes anticipated to be pumped at the show.

FLIGHT SHAMING

Private jets account for less than 0.1% of total annual carbon emissions globally, but can emit, on average, as much as 20 times more carbon emissions per guest mile than jetliners, according to the London-based private charter firm Victor.

Prince Harry has actually protected his occasional use of personal jets to ensure his family's security, and has actually stated that on the rare celebrations he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.

But planemakers say events such as the furore over his schedule have actually included fresh difficulties for an industry currently aiming to justify its contribution to cutting business expenses.

"Incidents of flight shaming involving making use of personal jets are unfortunate when you consider that our industry has actually delivered fuel performance improvements of 40% over the past 40 years," stated Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.

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

But even an image remodeling - with jets sporting sticker labels like "this aircraft flies on sustainable fuels" and organisers including alternative fuel pumps for checking out aircrafts - is not likely to please all critics at the Oct 22-24 event.

Environmentalists and some experts remain skeptical that biojetfuels, typically combined 50-50 with kerosene, will make a substantial influence on public understandings about high-end travel.

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

Demand from business jet operators for renewable 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 approximately 150 million gallons by 2022.

Corporate charter business and consultants are also seeing more interest from consumers who want 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 business jet usage research study his company just recently completed for a Fortune 500 business.

"At the end of the day, I believe that cost, expense per hour, range, speed and efficiency, that's still the (sales) chauffeur. But I believe people are becoming more knowledgeable about the sustainability of operations and how it affects the world." (Reporting By Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexandra Hudson)