Biofuels Digest Special Report on Aviation Biofuels: Airlines
British Airways. BA announced that it would test four alternative fuels for a trial in a Rolls Royce test bed early next year. The company said that the fuel it chose would not impact food, water or land, although it did not offer details on how this would be achieved in a press release.
BA staff newspaper British Airways News said that the term alternative fuels was used instead of biofuels because of the negative association of the term with first generation ethanol. The company said that it would test four fuels, and was seeking up to 15,000 gallons of fuel for the test.
Earlier, BA management characterized of the Virgin biofuels trial as a “PR stunt”.
Japan Air Lines. In January, JAL became the fourth airline to successfully flight test biofuels in the past year, and the first to successfully demonstrate camelina as a biofuel feedstock. The airline conducted a one-hour 747-300 flight test using a B50 blend of camelina, jatropha and algae based biofuel in the number 3 engine. The jatropha was supplied by Terrasol, algae oil by Sapphire Energy, and the camelina oil by Sustainable Oils.
The biofuel was 84 percent camelina, 16 percent jatropha, and less than one percent algae.The fuel was processed by Honeywell’s UOP subsidiary, and supplied by a joint venture of UOP and JGC, Nikki Universal. In ground tests conducted yesterday, the pilots reported that the biofuel was more fuel efficient than 100 percent traditional jet-A fuel (kerosene), a finding consistent with the Continental test last month, and indicates that biofuels may not only be a carbon-neutral option, but a more fuel efficient one. Pratt & Whitney, which manufactures the engines used in the test, confirmed that the biofuel met of exceeded performance criteria established for commercial aviation jet fuel. Boeing Japan president Nicole Piasecki said that the company is hopeful of flying revenue passenger flights within 3-5 years using biofuels.
Lufthansa. Lufthansa said that it would convert up to 10 percent of its fuel usage to biofuels by 2020, as a part of its overall effort to reduce emissions by 25 percent in that time frame. compared to 2006 levels. The company, which announced a set of measures to improve environmental efficiency, also said that it would reduce NOX emissions by 80 percent from 2000 levels.
Malaysia. Malaysia Airlines indicated that the airline expects to convert to biofuels as soon as they reach commercial viability in Southeast Asia. The airline’s CEO Datuk Seri Idris Jala made the comments while launching a “MAS Goes Green” initiative, which channels voluntary funds from customers into a Forest Research Institute-managed trust fund for sanctioned forest conservation projects.
Air France-KLM. Air France-KLM announced an agreement with Algae-Link to procure algae oil to be blended with conventional jet fuel. Deliveries of algae oil will commence by the end of 2008, according to Algae-Link executives, but quantities were not disclosed.
JetBlue. Airbus and Honeywell recently announced a partnership that they said would replace up to 30 percent of jet fuel with biofuels. The partnership, which also includes Jet Blue and the International Aero Engines consortium, said that they would produce biofuels from algae and other non-food vegetable oils. The International Aero Engines consortium included Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. Fuels will be developed by Honeywell UOP, which last year won a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA) to develop biofuels for the US military
Continental. Last December, Continental Airlines became the first US airliner to conduct a biofuels test flight. For the Continental test, the Boeing 737, powered by CFM engines, operated with a 50 percent biofuel blend in the right side engine during the two hour test program, which included a full power take off, a climb to 25,000 feet including a fuel pump switch-off, a cruise at 37,000 feet; deceleration/acceleration, descent, engine restart without starter; engine restart with starter, approach and go around, and landing. Preliminary data showed that the engines performed as predicted, and the test flight was completed without a hitch.
Virgin. The World Development Movement called the February 2008 Virgin 747 biodiesel test flight a “publicity stunt with dangerous consequences for the planet” and said that Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson “should back a campaign to include aviation in the climate change bill.
Sir Richard Branson, in remarks surrounding the Virgin 747 biodiesel test flight, said that algae would almost certainly be the feedstock for commercial aviation biofuels, implying that the selection of coconut and babassu oil had been made in light of an algae oil shortage. Branson announced a new business unit of Virgin Atlantic Airways that would produce algae-based biofuels for the airline’s use. Branson told reporters that algae is the best fuel feedstock because it does not affect food supply. He said that his company is “talking to a lot of sewage plants about setting up algae plants above and using a lot of the CO2 coming off those sewage plants” and said that using CO2 to produce algae for low-emission fuels was a “a double-whammy effect.”
Air New Zealand. Air New Zealand tested biofuels last December. The airline’s Boeing 747-400 successfully completed a two-hour test flight with one engine operating on a B50 blend of jet fuel and jatropha biodiesel. Air New Zealand said that the use of its B50 blend would reduce the carbon footprint of a 747 flight operation by 25 percent.
The crew operated the flight over the Hauraki Gulf area bear Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island, and tested the fuels under a wide variety of conditions, including a full power take off, a climb to 25,000 feet including a fuel pump switch-off, a cruise at 35,000 feet. deceleration/acceleration, descent, engine restart without starter at 26,000 feet, engine restart at 18,000 feet with starter, approach and go around and landing. Tests showed that jatropha biodiesel has a lower freezing point than standard jet fuel.
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chumroen benchavitvilai | Jun 19, 2009 | Reply
With the reaistic hard fact that all Biofuel was /is/will be more expensive than the mineral fuel.
The new innovative Bio Jet Fuel (SPK) will definitely be much more expensive than the currenr Jet Fuel Kerosene A-1 with any type of feed stock of Bio Plant Oil Jatropha/ Camelina / Algae).
The fuel cost is the major operating cost for the Aviation industry.
It is in a big doubt that all the Airline Companies are seriously willing to spend for such high cost of Bio Jet Fuel as the replacement fuel at much higher cost.