Aviation and Green Technology

Almost everyone realizes that there might be some environmental concerns when it comes to cars and car fuels, but most people do not really know much about the environmental problems that are connected with aviation and air travel. And it has to be said that at least some scientists consider aviation to be even more problematic than the automobile industry. In this article, we are going to look at some of the technologies that are reducing the environmental impact of air travel.

Fuels

Fuels are naturally the biggest issues and incredible sums of money are being invested into research that could find and develop suitable alternatives to the currently used fuels. The automobile industries might have already made decent progress in that matter, but the situation is different in the case of aviation. The reason for that is obvious – airplanes need very powerful engines and some of the alternatives simply cannot satisfy the requirements. As a result of that, most airlines are currently mainly trying to improve the efficiencies of airplanes and their operation.

Biofuels provide a reasonable alternative to fossil fuels, but there are many issues connected with them. Critics argue that heavy use of biofuels might lead to deforestation or destruction of valuable farmland. Non-food biofuels may be a solution to these problems, but they definitely need more testing before they are put to use globally. Various types of algae might also be used as biofuels and it seems that they may provide better yield than the standard types of biofuels, although more research has to be done in that field beforehand.

Other Improvements

The entire problem is obviously not all about fuel. Modern green technologies can also improve the aerodynamic properties of planes and decrease the overall energy requirements. Modern materials can also help with that, while governments might also want to relax various restrictions on flying routes in order to push the requirements down.

As you can see, the aviation industry still has a long way to go and the bad environmental record should push the industry into higher investments and more research. Right now, the situation is not ideal by any means. However, there are many ways out and we might even turn to some unorthodox solutions. Experimental flights that utilize electricity or solar energy have already been made and it seems that we are going to hear more about those green technologies in the future.