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1 Clean Getaway: Meat Waste Joins Biofuels At Luxury Jet Show

By Allison Lampert

LAS VEGAS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - At the world's biggest industry show in Las Vegas luxury jets are tempting purchasers with their streamlined shapes, luxurious cabins - and significantly, their usage of alternative fuels.

Fuel producers and jetmakers are keen to display unique kinds of air travel fuel deemed less harmful to the climate, from used cooking oil to the noticeably less attractive meat waste.

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

Their hope is that adopting eco-friendly fuel to suppress emissions might make business jets more attractive to ecologically mindful purchasers - particularly corporations dealing with concerns over sustainability from investors or green project groups.

The schedule of less contaminating personal jets could likewise spare the rich and famous the unfavorable promotion experienced by Britain's Prince Harry and his spouse Meghan over a current private jet journey to southern France.

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

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

"All of our item is inedible."

A few of the other 79 aircraft on display screen are expected to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other eco-friendly fuel mixes anticipated to be pumped at the program.

FLIGHT SHAMING

Private jets represent less than 0.1% of overall annual carbon emissions globally, but can give off, usually, as much as 20 times more carbon emissions per traveler mile than jetliners, according to the London-based personal charter firm Victor.

Prince Harry has safeguarded his occasional usage of private jets to ensure his family's safety, and has said that on the unusual events he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.

But planemakers state incidents such as the furore over his schedule have actually included fresh obstacles for an industry already aiming to validate its contribution to cutting corporate expenses.

"Incidents of flight shaming involving making use of private jets are unfortunate when you consider that our market has provided fuel effectiveness improvements of 40% over the previous 40 years," stated Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.

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

But even an image makeover - with jets sporting stickers like "this aircraft flies on renewable fuels" and organisers adding alternative fuel pumps for visiting airplanes - is unlikely to satisfy all critics at the Oct 22-24 luxury jet event.

Environmentalists and some experts stay hesitant that biojetfuels, usually mixed 50-50 with kerosene, will make a substantial effect on public understandings about luxury travel.

"No amount of jatropha curcas or Brazil-nut fuel can make business jets look eco-friendly," travel expert Richard Aboulafia.

Demand from service jet operators for renewable fuels now far goes beyond supply and their interest could drive future production, Sherbacow stated.

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

Corporate charter business and experts are likewise seeing more interest from consumers who wish to buy carbon credits to balance out emissions from their flights.

Brian Proctor, CEO of Mente Group, a U.S. consultancy, stated emissions played a function in a corporate jet utilization study his business just recently completed for a Fortune 500 business.

"At the end of the day, I believe that cost, cost per hour, range, speed and performance, that's still the (sales) motorist. But I think people are ending up being more knowledgeable about the sustainability of operations and how it impacts the world." (Reporting By Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexandra Hudson)