The world’s first demo flight with 40 people on board a KLM Boeing 747, fuelled on 50% camelina, a biofuel, and 50% traditional Twitter Facebook Share Email Print Save Comment fuel, circles over Netherlands for an hour. January 30, 2009: A Boeing 747-300 Japan Airlines test flight takes off from Tokyo with a biofuel mix of camelina, jatropha and algae.
These are not flights of fancy. The humble blue-green algae, the innocuous jatropha plant and the fast-growing camelina could well power a 735,000 lb plane soon. And airlines, plane manufacturers and engine companies have joined hands to see that these biomass sources oil the wheels of aviation as early as 2013 along with fossil fuels.
The International Air Transport Association’s goal is to see that alternative fuels form 10% of aviation fuel consumption by 2017. Boeing foresees them being used regularly within 3-5 years, while Airbus believes that by 2030, up to 30% of aviation fuel will be alternative.
Aviation is responsible for 2% of carbon emissions, but unlike other sectors such as power and ground transport, it doesn’t have alternative energy sources such as wind, hydro and electricity. Besides, almost 40% of an airline’s costs go towards fuel. It therefore makes good business sense to commercialize sustainable fuel sources, says Dr Dinesh Keskar, president of Boeing India. ‘‘Sustainable biofuels unlike other energy sources, meet the unique requirements of aviation jet fuel,’’ he says. These include having the correct energy density, freezing points and high energy content per unit weight and volume.
‘‘Any biofuel used,’’ says Paul Nash, head of New Energies at Airbus in Toulouse, ‘‘should be able to work on all aircraft types, new and old and without the need to modify either the aircraft or the engine and be able to mix with existing jet fuel.’’ And the aviation industry is only interested in those sources that don’t compete with food or fresh water resources or lead to land use change, explains Keskar. These are called second generation biofuels.
The best biofuels, says Charlie Miller, vice-president, International Corporate Communications at Boeing, are algae, jatropha, halophytes and camelina. ‘‘Algae can produce all the biofuel needed for all planes if grown in a water mass as large as Belgium. Halophytes can grow in salty conditions. And what’s encouraging is that the biofuels used till now have performed better than fossil fuels.’’
Says Alok Adholeya, director of Biotechnology and Management of Bioresources Division at The Energy and Resources Institute, Delhi, India has good resources for algae. ‘‘We have a large coastline of over 7,000 km where algae can be grown. This, along with sunlight and flue gas (a pollutant from industries) can be used to produce this fuel on a continuous basis.’’ Algae can produce 15-300 times more oil per acre than conventional crops, such as rapeseed or soybeans.
Would these biofuels actually bring down the cost of air tickets? ‘‘If their production costs can be brought down as the market matures,’’ says Miller, ‘‘we’ll get more miles to the gallon and this cost benefit can be passed on the consumer.’’ Prices will be then be comparable to that of petroleum-based jet fuel, assures Keskar.
The biggest challenge though, says Kapil Kaul, CEO, South Asia of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, is to ensure that biofuels can be mass produced at a low cost/high yield. ‘‘Initial studies anticipate an 80% reduction in overall emissions due to biofuels.’’ Jitender Bhargava, executive director, Air India, says it’s important to know how these fuels will be priced and their effciency in terms of miles flown per kilolitre.
Meanwhile, extensive tests and flight demonstrations are taking place so that safety is not compromised.
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