JAL flight to test camelina-jatropha-algae fuel

Japan Airlines will use second-generation feedstocks camelina, jatropha and algae oil for a demonstration jet flight in Japan on Jan. 30. Japan Airlines announced plans Dec. 16 for the one-hour demo flight from Tokyo. A blend of 50 percent biofuel and 50 percent Jet-A (kerosene) fuel will be tested in one of four Pratt & Whitney engines in a JAL-owned Boeing 747-300 aircraft. The biofuel component will be a mixture of three second-generation feedstocks: 84 percent camelina, 16 percent jatropha and less than one percent algae.
According to JAL’s announcement, the flight will have several firsts. It will be the first biofuel demonstration by an Asian airline, the first biofuels test using Pratt & Whitney engines, the first to use camelina and the first to use a combination of three sustainable feedstocks.
The camelina used in the JAL demo flight was sourced by Sustainable Oils Inc., a Montana-based developer of camelina-based fuels. India-based Terasol Energy sourced and provided the jatropha oil and the algae oil was provided by California-based Sapphire Energy.
The biofuel for the JAL demo flight was processed by UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, using proprietary hydro-processing technology. The fuel was then blended with Jet-A fuel to create the 50 percent blend. The flight test is the culmination of nearly a year’s work, which included laboratory testing by the Boeing Co., UOP and several independent laboratories.
17/12/08 Susanne Retka Schill/Biodiesel Magazine

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Categories: Foreign Dec 2008, New Dec 2008