Virgin Atlantic completes historic 747 biodiesel test, uses coconut and babassu oil from Imperium in B20 blend

In England, Virgin Atlantic Airways completed a successful test flight of a biodiesel-powered 747 aircraft, traveling from London to Amsterdam. One of the four engines ran on B20, supplied by Imperium Renewables, and made from babassu and coconut oil. Virgin had previously announced that it would use only sustainably produced biofuels in its aircraft. Boeing, which partnered with General Electric and Virgin in the test, will make another biofuels test in partnership with Air New Zealand later this year.

The use of B20 did not require any modifications to the General Electric CF6 engines for the crew-only flight.

In the UK, it had been reported by Flight International that Boeing and Virgin Atlantic have selected algae-based biodiesel as the feedstock for the B20 flight trial of a Virgin Atlantic 747 between London and Amsterdam later this month.

Boeing denied the reports, although they acknowledged that algae was one of four finalists along with three unnamed plant-based feedstocks. Boeing’s director of environmental performance, Bill Glover, said that commercial production would not begin until at least 2013.

Boeing has confirmed in tests that a wide range of feedstocks can produce biofuels suitable for jet aircraft, and the company says that these biofuels can be commercially produced on an economically viable basis. Boeing said that it expects to offer both financial and technical support to what it sees as a growing distribution system of jet biofuels.

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