Clean Getaway: Meat Waste Joins Biofuels At Luxury Jet Show

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 streamlined silhouettes, luxurious cabins – and increasingly, their usage of alternative fuels.

Fuel manufacturers and jetmakers are eager to showcase novel kinds of aviation fuel deemed less hazardous to the climate, from used cooking oil to the less glamorous meat waste.

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

Their hope is that adopting eco-friendly fuel to curb emissions could make service jets more attractive to environmentally conscious purchasers – specifically corporations facing concerns over sustainability from investors or green project groups.

The schedule of less contaminating personal jets could likewise spare the abundant and well-known the unfavorable publicity experienced by Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan over a current private jet trip to southern France.

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

The current waste-based fuels include “fats, grease and oils that are by-products of the food industry,” said Bryan Sherbacow, primary commercial 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 sustainable fuel mixes expected to be pumped at the show.

FLIGHT SHAMING

Private jets account for less than 0.1% of total annual carbon emissions internationally, however can release, usually, up to 20 times more carbon emissions per guest mile than jetliners, according to the London-based personal charter firm Victor.

Prince Harry has safeguarded his periodic use of personal jets to ensure his family’s safety, and has actually stated that on the unusual occasions he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.

But planemakers say occurrences such as the furore over his travel plan have included fresh difficulties for a market currently striving to validate its contribution to cutting business expenses.

“Incidents of flight shaming including using personal jets are unfortunate when you think about that our market has provided fuel efficiency enhancements of 40% over the past 40 years,” said Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.

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

But even an image remodeling – with jets sporting stickers like “this airplane flies on renewable fuels” and organisers adding alternative fuel pumps for checking out planes – is not likely to satisfy all critics at the Oct 22-24 luxury jet occasion.

Environmentalists and some analysts stay hesitant that biojetfuels, generally blended 50-50 with kerosene, will make a significant effect on public understandings about high-end travel.

“No amount of Jatropha or Brazil-nut fuel can make business jets look eco-friendly,” stated air travel analyst Richard Aboulafia.

Demand from business jet operators for sustainable fuels now far surpasses 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 experts are also seeing more interest from clients who wish 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 research study his company just recently finished for a Fortune 500 business.

“At the end of the day, I think that price, cost per hour, variety, speed and performance, that’s still the (sales) motorist. But I think 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)