Jeff St. John
Bio Jet Fuel Still Far Down the Runway

January 9, 2009 at 5:59 PM

Despite the successful tests of biofuel in test flights by Virgin
Atlantic, Air New Zealand and, most recently, Continental Airlines,
airlines and biofuel experts say a biofuel-powered airline industry is
still many years away.

And others say it ain’t gonna happen.

The successful test flight this week of a Continental jet using a
50-50 blend of jet fuel and biofuel made from jatropha and algae â€" two
hot crops in the roster of companies seeking to make “next-generation”
biofuels from non-food sources â€" led the International Airline
Transport Association’s environmental officer to speculate that some
airlines might be flying on biofuels in the next five years. (That’s
according to Point Carbon, a European energy and carbon market
analysis firm.)

But the airlines themselves aren’t announcing plans to move that fast
quite yet. Air New Zealand has said it wants to use biofuel for 10
percent of its flights by 2013, and German airline Lufthansa has plans
to reach that 10-percent biofuel mark by 2020.

Airlines are increasing the blend of biofuel they’re using in test
flights. The first biofuel-powered test flight by Virgin Atlantic
Airways in February used a 20 percent blend of biofuel made of coconut
and babbasu oil (see Virgin to Test Fly Bio Jet Fuel). Continental’s
flight, along with a test flight by Air New Zealand last month, upped
that blend to 50 percent (see Biofuel Powers Air New Zealand Test
Flight). Air New Zealand used a biofuel made from jatropha.

Japan Air Lines plans a test flight later this month, using a 50-50
blend of jet fuel and biofuel made from camelina, a grass grown in
rotation with wheat and corn. All the airlines testing biofuel have
pledged to use such non-food feedstocks, given the environmental and
economic disadvantages of placing pressure on food supplies by making
biofuel out of food crops like corn and soybeans.

Meanwhile, the British watchdog group Aviation Environment Federation
has released a report questioning the safety and viability of using
biofuel to replace even a fraction of airlines’ fuel needs. Beyond
questions of safety, which the IATA disputes (see the article from
Wired), the report’s author, Jeff Gazzard, said that it would be very
hard to grow enough jatropha, algae and other plants to replace the
roughly 240 million tons of jet fuel that airlines burn each year at
present.


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runway-956/