Currently, US Navy is experimenting with a fuel that is 50 percent derived from a seed called camelina and 50 percent is petroleum based.
As the concerns grow about volatile oil prices, climate changes and oil spills, the U.S. Navy and the commercial aviation industry are testing biofuels derived from camelina and other sources as an alternative to crude oil.
Rick Kamin, head of the Navy’s alternative-fuel testing program, says that while we have developed our systems to run forever on petroleum, it raises several issues regarding the volatile of prices, shipping issues and the safety of transportation. He further said that domestically produced biofuels can help making the supply more secure and less dependent on imported oil.
Rick Kamin further said that while experimenting with camelina oil that when tested, it is not worse than petroleum and sometimes it has performed better than petroleum fuel. Their goal is to use biofuel for at the least two-third transportation by the next decade.
Last year, Japan Airlines was one of the several who successfully tested bio-fuels. This initiative has been taken due to the recent spike in oil prices. While increased prices of crude oil prices is a major factor, environment concerns are a priority too.
As burning crude oil creates carbon dioxide, with growing industrialization it has become a greater concern with climate changes.
As India has to import a huge part of the its requirement of the crude oil, India has a big stake in the success of the biofuel tests.
