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 high-end jets are tempting buyers with their sleek silhouettes, luxurious cabins – and progressively, their usage of alternative fuels.

Fuel manufacturers and jetmakers are eager to display unique forms of air travel fuel considered less harmful to the environment, from utilized cooking oil to the noticeably less waste.

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

Their hope is that embracing sustainable fuel to suppress emissions might make company jets more attractive to ecologically mindful purchasers – especially corporations dealing with concerns over sustainability from investors or green project groups.

The schedule of less polluting private jets could also spare the rich and popular the negative publicity experienced by Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan over a current personal jet journey to southern France.

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

The most current waste-based fuels include “fats, grease and oils that are by-products of the food industry,” stated Bryan Sherbacow, primary commercial officer of Boston-based biofuel manufacturer World Energy, which produces fuel from meat waste used by Gulfstream.

“All of our item is inedible.”

Some of the other 79 aircraft on display are expected to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other renewable fuel mixes expected to be pumped at the program.

FLIGHT SHAMING

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

Prince Harry has actually safeguarded his occasional use of personal jets to guarantee his household’s security, and has stated that on the rare events he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.

But planemakers say occurrences such as the furore over his travel plan have actually included fresh challenges for an industry already striving to justify its contribution to cutting business costs.

“Incidents of flight shaming including using private jets are unfortunate when you consider that our industry has delivered fuel efficiency improvements of 40% over the previous 40 years,” said Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.

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

But even an image makeover – with jets sporting stickers like “this aircraft flies on eco-friendly fuels” and organisers including alternative fuel pumps for going to aircrafts – is unlikely to please all critics at the Oct 22-24 luxury jet occasion.

Environmentalists and some experts remain hesitant that biojetfuels, typically mixed 50-50 with kerosene, will make a significant influence on public perceptions about high-end travel.

“No quantity of Jatropha or Brazil-nut fuel can make company jets look eco-friendly,” stated air travel expert Richard Aboulafia.

Demand from organization jet operators for sustainable fuels now far exceeds supply and their interest might drive future production, Sherbacow said.

World Energy, which produces 40 million gallons of biofuel at its California plant, could expand production up to 150 million gallons by 2022.

Corporate charter business and experts are also seeing more interest from customers who want to buy carbon credits to offset emissions from their flights.

Brian Proctor, CEO of Mente Group, a U.S. consultancy, said emissions played a role in a corporate jet utilization study his business just recently finished for a Fortune 500 company.

“At the end of the day, I think that price, cost per hour, variety, speed and performance, that’s still the (sales) chauffeur. But I think people are becoming more knowledgeable about the sustainability of operations and how it impacts the planet.” (Reporting By Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexandra Hudson)