Virgin flies first commercial plane with biofuel

William Atkins
Sunday, 24 February 2008 20:14

Science - Climate

Sir Richard Branson is trying to fly greener skies with the first flight of a commercial aircraft fueled partially with biofuel. Specifically, he just flew a Boeing 747 partially filled with biofuels made with babassu nut oil  and coconut oil.         

On Sunday, February 24, 2008, Virgin Atlantic Airways tested a Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet on a flight from London, England’s Heathrow International Airport to Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, Netherlands.

One of its General Electric engines was modified with a fuel mixture of 25% biofuel (babassu nut oil and coconut oil) and 75% kerosene (standard aircraft fuel).

The babassu nut oil/coconut oil blend was produced by Imperium Renewables.

Babassu nuts are hard-shelled nuts that are harvested from babassu palms primarily in the Amazon River rainforest of South America. Its oil, babassu nut oil, sometimes called cusi oil, is a light-colored vegetable oil, similar to coconut oil, which is extracted from the seeds of the babassu palm.

At a press conference at Heathrow, Branson stated, “This pioneering flight will enable those of us who are serious about reducing our carbon emissions to go on developing the fuels of the future.” He added, “Two years ago, people said that [flying with biofuel] was impossible. They said it would freeze at 30,000 feet.'' [Associated Press: “Virgin flies biofueled jet from London”]

Branson was also very happy to have his team develop the biofuel earlier than planned. He stated, "Flying our 747 on biofuel 10 months earlier than planned is a major breakthrough. The flight will give our engineers and those at Boeing and GE vital learnings for the passenger flights of the future." [SeattlePI.com: "Virgin Atlantic to fly a 747 using biofuel"]

Branson also stated at the interview that he foresees using algae-based fuel for his formula rather than what he used in this initial test. The switch to algae is based on the fact that it can be more easily and more cheaply produced than the tested babassu nuts/coconut oil product.

The goal is to perform further tests of biofuels on other commercial aircraft carriers, with the hope of regularly using biofuels within five years in order to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and to better counter global warming by the aircraft industry.

Generally, biofuels do reduce greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, when they are compared with petroleum-based products in actual use. However, critics of biofuels state that when one adds the amount of air pollution produced when growing and harvesting biofuels, they are actually worse in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced when compared with petroleum-based fuels.

To find out which is better, it is necessary that scientists perform independent tests on both lines of fuels: biofuels versus petroleum-based products. It is also prudent to continue researching and developing other ways to reduce air pollution in the aircraft industry, such as more efficient engines, more efficient routes taken by airplanes, and other such measures.