Jet fuels derived from algae, camelina and jatropha — plants that pack an energy punch, are not eaten as food and do not displace food crops — could be approved and replacing petroleum fuels in commercial flights as early as next year, a Boeing executive said yesterday, according to a May 29 Greenwire report by Katie Howell.
Bill Glover, managing director of environmental strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which is leading an effort to develop, test and certify alternative jet fuels, said the technology is ready. Now, it is just a matter of growing enough non-food feedstock plants and refining enough of their oil, he told Howell.
In the past year and a half, commercial airlines have made four successful test flights using a variety of biofuel-JetA blends. Boeing was involved in all four flights, including a Virgin Atlantic flight using a coconut- and babassu-derived biofuel blend; an Air New Zealand flight using a jatropha-derived biofuel blend; a Continental Airlines flight using a blend of algae-and jatropha-derived biofuel; and a Japan Airlines flight using an algae-jatropha-and camelina-derived biofuel blend.
“We’ve proven the technical capability of biofuel as a drop-in replacement,” Glover said. “It meets all jet fuel requirements and then some.”
Sometime in June a coalition headed by Boeing will release a full report on all the test flights. After that, the international standards board that approves fuels and chemicals could certify plant-derived biofuels as JetA-1 fuel within a year, Glover said. Once the fuels are approved, they can be used as replacements. “Airplanes are already certified to operate on anything known as JetA-1,” Glover added.
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For the full story: www.greenwire.com
