Written by Madhav, a grade 10 student

The issue of sustainable development has become more and more pressing as time has passed. As people have been made aware of the ill effects of fossil fuels various alternatives have been tried like biofuels, electrical fuel, and solar fuel are some widely used fuels currently

What’s Jet Fuel?

This is what planes run on and is a highly refined version of petroleum which is kerosene. Petroleum is a fossil fuel and hence planes also have a role in environmental pollution

New future and not just in planes

Pioneering ideas on sustainable development are not only limited to the aviation sector but also have a vast impact in other areas like motor racing, plastic reduction, and others

In motor racing parallel projects using electricity as a fuel have made formula electricity or formula E the future for Formula 1 and other motor sporting events.

In Sikkim, for instance, some towns like Lachen have banned the use of all plastic-based items including waterbottles and provided alternatives like bamboo waterbottles.

Other ideas to reduce environmental pollution are using enzymes to treat plastic and using stubble cutting machines.

Hence a solution for jets will complete the list of sustainable options in all sectors of transportation as well as some parts of agriculture which are part of the most polluting sectors.

A new alternative?

Green jet fuel also contains kerosene but to reduce the pollution levels it also has agricultural waste and our common cooking oil. This new concoction is said to reduce pollution levels by 80 percent on average.

More about the green jet fuel

The new Green Jet fuel essentially uses waste materials like oils from plants and animals and other wastes like scraps from the paper and textile industries. It was created by Honeywell. The first use of such biofuels in jets was in 2008 and then in 2011, the biofuels were allowed to 50 percent of the tank. Now this number is diminishing at a fast pace and looks set to meet its deadline of 2 percent by 2025

Importance of this

A flight from Delhi to London emits about 0.93 tonnes of carbon dioxide gas whereas a flight from London to San Francisco emits 1 tonne. All of this adds up and leads to more and more global warming. An aircraft with green jet fuel will emit about 0.186 tonnes and 0.2 tonnes respectively to these destinations

The future 

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, which created vehicles that run on electricity recently stated that in about 3-4 years’ time electrical batteries can be used to fuel everything from scooters to airplanes with the only exception being the rocket. This will lead to no 80 percent but 100 percent saving on environmental pollution and is the future after this discovery

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