Air New Zealand completed a successful biofuel-powered test flight of a Boeing 747-400. The two hour flight took off from Auckland airport on Tuesday morning, December 30th, 2008 as part of a joint initiative between Air New Zealand, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell's and Terasol Energy.
Only one of the Boeing 747's Rolls-Royce engines was used to test the 50:50 blend of Jet A and Jatropha fuels. This is the first time Jatropha-based fuel was tested in flight. Earlier this year Virgin Atlantic operated a similar test flight of one of its Boeing 747s running on a different kind of biofuel blend, containing coconut and babassu nut oils.
The advantage of Jathropa-based second-generation biofuel is that it does not compete with food and fresh water resources as first generation biofuels, such as ethanol or coconut oil, do. The Jathropa plant can be grown in difficult soil which is not suitable for most food crops and therefore allows for better utilization of land.
Comments (1)
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