Biofuels for Planes

We have had biofuels for cars for a number of years now. However a Boeing 737 yesterday became the first plane in the United States to fly passengers powered by biofuel. The fuel which is algae based was developed by Solazyme, a company based in San Francisco. The plane, bearing the “eco-skies” logo, landed in Chicago with 150 passengers and 6 crew members.

Incredibly it has been estimated that the flight from Huston to Chicago greatly reduced carbon dioxide emissions to the same amount as a car that has been driven 30,000 miles. The aircraft's parent company, United Continental, are looking to buy 20 million gallons of the biofuel to be delivered by 2014. The fuel is 60 percent petroleum-based and 40 percent algae-based. The biofuel used for the flight is known as a “drop-in replacement” meaning that the aircraft needed no modifications to use the fuel and the pilots needed to make no adjustments to the aircraft in flight.

This wasn’t the first flight by an aircraft using biofuel. In fact biofuel has been tested before on aircraft. Earlier in 2011, a 747 freighter was successfully flown across the Atlantic using biofuel. That particular flight used a camelina biofuel mix. Camelina, which is a plant native to the Mediterranean regions of the world, has been grown in recent years in the US state of Montana for use as a biofuel. There has been a lot of excitement around biofuels for some time now with the US Air Force testing it on their aircraft as well. Other airlines have been experimenting with bio-fuels too. Companies such as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Lufthansa. Virgin Atlantic announced that they would be seeking to introduce bio-fuel within the next three years.

There are also potential economic benefits of using greener biofuels. Biofuels may not only reduce emissions by up to 80 per cent compared to petroleum-based jet fuel, but may also be far more efficient than regular fuel, thus reducing fuel costs as well as carbon emissions. There is also the added benefit of not having the volatility of the crude-oil market to worry about. Jet fuel is the largest running cost involved in flying a jet.

The algae-based fuel called “solajet” developed by Solazyme is manufactured by a fermentation process of algae oils. It is then further refined by Honeywell UOP, who is a company specialising in fuel refinement.

As the demand for flights is set to rise over the next 20 years it looks as though world leaders will be looking to impose emissions restrictions on aircraft and airlines. It’s good to see that the airlines are taking the initiative and seeking a greener alternative first.