VIRGIN FLIGHT: Virgin Atlantic flew a 747-400 from London to Amsterdam with one engine partially powered by palm oil.
Image: COURTESY OF VIRGIN-ATLANTIC
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Virgin Atlantic became the first commercial airplane operator to fly a plane powered partially by palm tree oil this week. In a short but historic flight, one of the company's Boeing 747-400s flew more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from London Heathrow Airport to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, reaching a peak altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) during the 40-minute flight, with one of its four engines burning a blend of 20 percent coconut and babassu oils mixed with regular petroleum-based jet fuel.
"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," Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, said in a statement.
Unfortunately, that low-carbon fuel of the future is not likely to be the blend that performed well here. The reason: such biofuel may end up causing rather than curing climate change, according to recent studies. In addition, fuel from the world's limited supply of coconuts could drive up the price of the cooking oil as well as lead to further clearing of endangered rainforests in Southeast Asia for palm plantation expansion. And though the babassu palm grows wild in Brazil--not unlike switchgrass, a native perennial grass that might be used for ethanol in North America--there may not be enough of it to slake much of commercial aviation's thirst for fuel.
Regardless, the nut-generated biodiesel did not gum up the unmodified engine (biodiesel can gel when exposed to the low temperatures found at high altitude) or impair its smooth functioning. Technicians from Virgin Atlantic, Boeing, GE Aviation (maker of the engine) and fuel provider Imperium Renewables now plan to analyze data collected during the flight to assess the engine's performance and pollution emissions.
Air New Zealand will test a Boeing 747 (this one powered by Rolls-Royce engines) using biofuels in coming months--and more demonstrations may follow. The Virgin Atlantic flight "is just to prove to industry that you can make fuel that has these cold-flow properties," (does not congeal at lower temperatures), says David Daggett, Boeing's technology leader for energy and emissions. "The second [test] will be to look more at sustainability issues and second-generation feedstocks."
Virgin's flight follows in the jet wash of the U.S. Air Force, Airbus and BioJet 1. Both the Air Force in December and Airbus earlier this month completed flights powered by synfuel--liquid jet fuel made from coal or natural gas. Last October, BioJet 1--a 1968 Czechoslovakian L-29 fighter jet--reached around 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) on 100 percent biodiesel during a test flight in Reno, Nev. Florida-based Green Flight International plans to fly the old jet--chosen because it has fuel-line heaters to keep the biodiesel from gelling--more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from Reno to Orlando, Fla., later this year, pending U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval.
The FAA has already approved at least one biofuel--ethanol--as an alternative fuel for two types of aircraft and engines, including the Piper Pawnee powered by Lycoming IO-540 engines. At least 1,000 crop dusters in Brazil have already logged "over 650,000 hours in spray operation on 100 percent ethanol," says Max Shauck, director of the Baylor Institute for Air Science.
But ethanol will not work for the larger jumbo jets in commercial aviation because it does not pack enough power per gallon. Sir Branson ultimately hopes to use algae to produce the energy-dense oil needed to fly them. The microscopic plant can produce 60 percent of its weight as oil and can be grown in dirty freshwater or even in the oceans, according to systems engineer Ron Pate at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., who has been analyzing its fuel power potential.
As Boeing's Daggett says: "There are still a lot of hurdles to overcome, but 10 to 20 years is a reasonable time frame for production of biofuels from algae."
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9 Comments
Add CommentHope the day will come soon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEthanol use is not the answer. It takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol then you get back when you burn it. All you do is move the polution problem from the jets to the land based facilities that produce the fuel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeven years ago I bought a brand new AUDI A4 TDI. From the beginning I used 50% of the time Biodiesel (Methylester) because the user manual allowed it. After 80 000 km the high pressure fuel pump started leaking. Diesel and Biodiesel together made the large O-Ring, which seals the high-pressure part of the pump, porous. I found out to late, that BOSCH, the manufacturer of the pump, until today did not release it for Biodiesel (Methylester).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow AUDI came to write in their user manual the opposite, I don't know.
No one in Germany got his pump repaired by AUDI, because, they argue, it must be bad Biodiesel, and this is not their fault. Until today there exists no O-ring seal for Diesel Pumps which can endure Methylester together with Diesel.
Part of the reason for this test flight (and for the blending of biodieself and conventional kerosene) was to see how biofuels interact with things like O-rings. Gotta have the right parts...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for ethanol, certainly the grain alcohol produced from corn is a loser (even from an energy independence perspective) but ethanol made from sugarcane has been a winner for Brazil (and Brazilian crop dusters) and ethanol from waste could provide a portion of U.S. fuel needs. And if we're going to get off oil, we'll need all the help we can get.
Biodiesel is great stuff as long as you stay away from rubber seals. It doesn't matter who made the device, there are no exceptions to this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's also nessesary to get real with where you are getting your biodiesel from. It's been well established that palm trees, corn, and other traditional vegtable oil sources are a bad Idea. Alge, on the other hand, looks to be far superior.
Biofuel made from Palm Oil is far from bio-friendly and expansion of such technology could result in a quantum leap in the destruction of forests. Be very careful when being a proponent of Biofuel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlgae. It is the ONE, neo.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease check the data on the ethanol in jet engines. Ethanol has less energy per gallon than jet fuel, but it does have oxygen molecules that actually increase miles per gallon over jet fuel at high altitudes where oxygen in the atmosphere is the limiting factor of power production.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHad anibody of the commentators had a chance to learn the very old story of the brasilian ethanol production ? Many years ago when only sugar was produced the market agreed on quotas for the different producers. Now the harvest changes from years to year and every producer tried to produce his quota ( for a good price ) Naturally he planted so much cane that even with a poor harvest he could sell his quota. Now what to do with the rest ?? You can drink only so much rum or whiskey etc. So the idea was born to use the surplus for cars. The VW motor was easy to convert, because the climate in brasil is usually warm. The rest is known. Some problems still prevail, ethanol mixes with water, gasoline does not. Take E85 and put a little bit of water in it. You will hawe two layers of liquids water/ethanol on the bottom and gasolin on top. I would not want to fly with such a mixture. The brasilian cropduster know all those problems.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for the different discussions. Dr.Kamlander@aon.at