First commercial biofuel jet test successfully completed yesterday
Airlines all over the world are finding themselves under increased pressure to lower their carbon footprints, and saving a buck or two (million) in the process certainly wouldn't hurt anything. To that end, Air New Zealand has successfully conducted the world's first commercial test flight with a Boeing 747-400 powered by Rolls-Royce jet engines. According to reports, everything went exactly as planned without a single problem.
This successful test should go a long way towards helping Air New Zealand hit its self-imposed target of displacing 10 percent of its 9 million barrels of fuel used annually with biofuels by 2013. If the company is able to meet that goal, some 400,000 tons of CO2 could be kept out of the atmosphere. For this flight, one of the jet's two engines ran on jatrpopha-based oil and the other used normal Jet A1 fuel.
Jatropha oil reportedly freezes at a lower temperature than even standard-grade jet fuel and is not used as a food source, making it an ideal choice for aviation biofuels. The oil for these tests was sourced from East Africa and India and is cost competitive with traditional fuels.
[Source: Stuff.co.nz]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
atc98092 2:00PM (12/30/2008)
Um, Jeremy. You might want to read through the story again, and perhaps look at the picture closer. A Boeing 747 has 4, not 2 engines.
Also, they've used RR engines since the 1960s. Perhaps you meant to say the first flight with RR engines using this particular type of biofuel.
Nitpicking aside :), any biofuel that doesn't compete with food crops should be worth watching.
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Peter L 5:28PM (12/30/2008)
Will be flying across the Pacific to Aetearoa from N Am. with ANZ in Feb & May. Could be interesting. Hopefully the 747s still have 4 engines, or it could be on the 767 with 2.
Have done the flight many times going back to DC 10 days
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Andy 3:54PM (12/30/2008)
Actually, the first biofuel airliner flight happened back in Feb. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7261214.stm
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gorr 4:21PM (12/30/2008)
They can have done the flight with 100% green algae fuel for 10x less money but they need to study deforestration before in india and west africa.
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Chris M 6:26PM (12/30/2008)
Biofuels from algae is very promising, but it is still under development with a few problems to be solved first. Once algae fuel is available in commercial quantities I suspect they will be using it.
Jatropha biofuels are available now, and Jatropha grows on land unsuitable for most food crops or algae.
DRoseDARs 6:57PM (12/30/2008)
Is anyone else galled by the notion that they think a 50-50 blend in one out of four engines counts as a successful biofuel flight? 747-400's can fly on one engine (out of four) if they must, so don't call me until they do so on a 100% blend on that one engine. The other three can be regular jet fuel for backup in case since they are just testing, but a 50-50 blend and they declare Mission Accomplished? Give me a break.
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Richard in FLA 11:45PM (12/30/2008)
They flew with one engine on regular jet fuel for safety reasons? I thought it would be common sense. I thought that Virgin did the same thing when they tested synthetic fuel. It wasn't to pull the wool over our eyes, but to make sure that if something happened, the other engine could bring the plane back safely. IMHO
DRoseDARs 4:34AM (12/31/2008)
Rich in FLA, I think you've misread my post. My point is that the fuel in the one engine was mixed and not 100% biofuel. The other three engines were regular jet fuel, but the fourth engine was a 50-50 blend. If I mount a solar panel on the roof of my Explorer, connect a motor to it, and have that motor transfer its motion to the drivetrain in tandem with my regular gas engine, can I claim to have successfully driven a solar-powered suv? You better believe everyone and their grandmother would call BS on that, and I'm calling BS on this "successful biofuel flight." And like someone mentioned earlier, this wasn't even the first "successful" flight. That goes to Virgin earlier this year and from what I've read, one of that 747-400's engines was fueled by a 100% biofuel taken from a tank separate from the ones fueling the other three regular engines.
gorr 3:41PM (12/31/2008)
@ chris m
You writed 'Jatropha biofuels are available now, and Jatropha grows on land unsuitable for most food crops or algae'
You are a complete criminal working for natural ressources cartel using just corruption and arms to impose deals. Algae can grow anywhere and is better then jathropha. It's just that you impeded algae because anyone can grow it easilly. You deal land usage everywhere in the world by laws and subsidies to kill the land and impose poverty. Many millions people have die of it over the years.
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