It’s been nearly 12.5 years since Virgin Atlantic flew a Boeing 747 between London and Amsterdam partly powered by a biofuel made from Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts. Although Sir Richard Branson labeled the event a “vital breakthrough”, many observers dismissed it as just another one of his outlandish PR and marketing stunts. And they might have been right. More than a decade on, aviation biofuels account for less than 1 percent of the 1.5 billion barrels of aviation fuels (15 percent of global oil supply) that commercial airlines burn through in a typical year. It does not help to learn that the global aviation industry emits so much CO2 and other harmful greenhouse gases that if it was a country, it would rank among the top 10 emitters . It’s only natural to wonder: Why has the adoption of these cleaner fuels been so dismal? To be fair, […]