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 high-end jets are drawing buyers with their streamlined shapes, luxurious cabins – and significantly, their use of alternative fuels.

Fuel manufacturers and jetmakers are eager to showcase unique kinds of air travel fuel considered less harmful to the climate, from used cooking oil to the clearly less attractive meat waste.

Business jet operators, like airline companies, have acquiesced ecological pressure on air travel and devoted to halving carbon emissions by 2050 compared to 2005.

Their hope is that fuel to suppress emissions could make company jets more appealing to environmentally mindful purchasers – particularly corporations dealing with questions over sustainability from investors or green project groups.

The availability of less polluting private jets might likewise spare the abundant and well-known the negative publicity experienced by Britain’s Prince Harry and his other half Meghan over a current personal jet journey to southern France.

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

The latest waste-based fuels include “fats, grease and oils that are byproducts of the food industry,” said Bryan Sherbacow, chief industrial 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 airplane on screen are anticipated to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other renewable fuel mixes anticipated to be pumped at the program.

FLIGHT SHAMING

Private jets account for less than 0.1% of overall yearly carbon emissions internationally, but can discharge, 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 periodic usage of personal jets to guarantee his household’s security, and has said that on the rare occasions he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.

But planemakers state events such as the furore over his travel plan have actually added fresh challenges for a market already making every effort to validate its contribution to cutting corporate costs.

“Incidents of flight shaming involving the use of private jets are regrettable when you consider that our industry has provided fuel efficiency improvements of 40% over the past 40 years,” said Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.

Bombardier thinks increased sustainable fuel usage will assist the market make inroads with corporations and rich buyers. According to industry information, billionaires just have a 19% organization jet ownership rate.

But even an image transformation – with jets sporting stickers like “this airplane flies on sustainable fuels” and organisers including alternative fuel pumps for going to airplanes – is unlikely to please all critics at the Oct 22-24 high-end jet event.

Environmentalists and some analysts remain skeptical that biojetfuels, generally blended 50-50 with kerosene, will make a considerable influence on public perceptions about luxury travel.

“No quantity of jatropha curcas or Brazil-nut fuel can make business jets look eco-friendly,” said aviation expert Richard Aboulafia.

Demand from company jet operators for sustainable fuels now far surpasses supply and their interest might 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 companies and specialists are likewise seeing more interest from customers who desire to purchase carbon credits to balance out emissions from their flights.

Brian Proctor, CEO of Mente Group, a U.S. consultancy, said emissions played a function in a business jet usage study his company recently completed for a Fortune 500 business.

“At the end of the day, I believe that cost, cost per hour, range, speed and efficiency, that’s still the (sales) motorist. But I think individuals 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)