Japan Air Lines The Latest To Test Fly Biofuels  

Posted by Big Gav in ,

TG Daily reports that biofuel test flights are all the rage lately - Biofuel test flights by airlines increasing.

The most recent airlines involved in this biofuel testing, said the U.S. Department of Energy, included Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines. These three followed in the wake of a biofuel test early last year by Virgin Atlantic, which got a Boeing 747-400 from London to Amsterdam in about 40 minutes on a mix of Babassu and coconut oils. That particular flight reached an altitude of 25,000 feet.

The Air New Zealand flight, conducted December 30, was a two hour test run out of Auckland, using a biofuel blend of 50:50 jatropha and Jet A1 fuel to power one of the plane's engines. Continental's biofuel test, done on January 7, worked off of one engine as well and was run out of Houston. The biofuel blend for that flight, mixed 50:50 with regular jet fuel, included components derived from algae and jatropha plants.

As for the Japan Airlines flight, conducted on January 30, it too did a straight down the middle blend of regular jet fuel and biofuel. It was flown of out Tokyo for an hour-and-a-half, with the biofuel mixture consisting of amelina (84%), jatropha (under 16%), and algae (under 1%). No passengers were carried on any of these flights, which did a number of tests on systems to determine effectiveness of the fuel mixes. Boeing, among others, was involved in most of the tests.

Gas 2.0 has a report on the JAL test flight - Japan Airlines 747 Makes First Ever Flight on Camelina Biofuel.
Camelina, grown for 3,000 years primarily to produce vegetable oil and animal feed, is suddenly a very popular plant. The relatively low cost to convert it into fuel could make it competitive with gasoline and diesel. with fewer harmful emissions. And it’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, which could make it attractive as a food oil. Growers from Montana to the plains of Canada are planting the crop.

JAL used a 50/50 of the biofuel and traditional aviation fuel in the aircraft’s No. 3 engine, without having to make any modifications to the engine, the airline said. The plane flew without cargo or passengers. Analysts from JAL, Boeing and Pratt and Whitney, which made the jet’s engines, will now pour over data to analyze the fuel’s performance. That process could take several weeks, the companies said. The pilot reported a smooth flight with no problems. ...

Boeing Japan President Nicole Piasecki said airlines could be flying revenue-producing flights with biodiesel in three to five years. In that time, Tom Todaro, chief executive of Sustainable Oils Inc., which supplied the camelina used in the test flight fuel, said there could be as much as 200 million gallons of camelina-based fuel being produced annually.

0 comments

Post a Comment

Statistics

Locations of visitors to this page

blogspot visitor
Stat Counter

Total Pageviews

Ads

Books

Followers

Blog Archive

Labels

australia (619) global warming (423) solar power (397) peak oil (355) renewable energy (302) electric vehicles (250) wind power (194) ocean energy (165) csp (159) solar thermal power (145) geothermal energy (144) energy storage (142) smart grids (140) oil (139) solar pv (138) tidal power (137) coal seam gas (131) nuclear power (129) china (120) lng (117) iraq (113) geothermal power (112) green buildings (110) natural gas (110) agriculture (91) oil price (80) biofuel (78) wave power (73) smart meters (72) coal (70) uk (69) electricity grid (67) energy efficiency (64) google (58) internet (50) surveillance (50) bicycle (49) big brother (49) shale gas (49) food prices (48) tesla (46) thin film solar (42) biomimicry (40) canada (40) scotland (38) ocean power (37) politics (37) shale oil (37) new zealand (35) air transport (34) algae (34) water (34) arctic ice (33) concentrating solar power (33) saudi arabia (33) queensland (32) california (31) credit crunch (31) bioplastic (30) offshore wind power (30) population (30) cogeneration (28) geoengineering (28) batteries (26) drought (26) resource wars (26) woodside (26) censorship (25) cleantech (25) bruce sterling (24) ctl (23) limits to growth (23) carbon tax (22) economics (22) exxon (22) lithium (22) buckminster fuller (21) distributed manufacturing (21) iraq oil law (21) coal to liquids (20) indonesia (20) origin energy (20) brightsource (19) rail transport (19) ultracapacitor (19) santos (18) ausra (17) collapse (17) electric bikes (17) michael klare (17) atlantis (16) cellulosic ethanol (16) iceland (16) lithium ion batteries (16) mapping (16) ucg (16) bees (15) concentrating solar thermal power (15) ethanol (15) geodynamics (15) psychology (15) al gore (14) brazil (14) bucky fuller (14) carbon emissions (14) fertiliser (14) matthew simmons (14) ambient energy (13) biodiesel (13) investment (13) kenya (13) public transport (13) big oil (12) biochar (12) chile (12) cities (12) desertec (12) internet of things (12) otec (12) texas (12) victoria (12) antarctica (11) cradle to cradle (11) energy policy (11) hybrid car (11) terra preta (11) tinfoil (11) toyota (11) amory lovins (10) fabber (10) gazprom (10) goldman sachs (10) gtl (10) severn estuary (10) volt (10) afghanistan (9) alaska (9) biomass (9) carbon trading (9) distributed generation (9) esolar (9) four day week (9) fuel cells (9) jeremy leggett (9) methane hydrates (9) pge (9) sweden (9) arrow energy (8) bolivia (8) eroei (8) fish (8) floating offshore wind power (8) guerilla gardening (8) linc energy (8) methane (8) nanosolar (8) natural gas pipelines (8) pentland firth (8) saul griffith (8) stirling engine (8) us elections (8) western australia (8) airborne wind turbines (7) bloom energy (7) boeing (7) chp (7) climategate (7) copenhagen (7) scenario planning (7) vinod khosla (7) apocaphilia (6) ceramic fuel cells (6) cigs (6) futurism (6) jatropha (6) nigeria (6) ocean acidification (6) relocalisation (6) somalia (6) t boone pickens (6) local currencies (5) space based solar power (5) varanus island (5) garbage (4) global energy grid (4) kevin kelly (4) low temperature geothermal power (4) oled (4) tim flannery (4) v2g (4) club of rome (3) norman borlaug (2) peak oil portfolio (1)