Green flights: Airlines go for biofuels

The world’s first demo flight with 40 people on board a KLM Boeing 747, fuelled on 50% camelina, a biofuel, and 50%traditional fuel, flew over Netherlands for an hour on January 30, 2009. Few days back, Boeing 747-300 Japan Airlines test flight took 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 3-5years, 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. Sustainable biofuels unlike other energy sources, meet the unique requirements of aviation jet fuel. These include having the correct energy density, freezing points and high energy content per unit weight and volume.

Any biofuel used 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. These are called second generation biofuels. The best biofuels, 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.

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. If their production costs can be brought down as the market matures, we’ll get more miles to the gallon and this cost benefit can be passed on the consumer. Initial studies anticipate an 80% reduction in overall emissions due to biofuels.

Meanwhile, extensive tests and flight demonstrations are taking place so that safety is not compromised.