'Jetropha' flight takes to skies

A jet takes to Auckland's skies this morning for the world's first commercial test flight powered by a second-generation biofuel.
A 50:50 blend of the oily nut from the jatropha tree and Jet A1 fuel will power the two-hour exercise that will be monitored by representatives from Boeing, Rolls-Royce and biofuel specialist Honeywell's UOP.
The flight crew will conduct fuel tests measuring the performance of the engine and fuel systems at various altitudes and under a variety of operating conditions.
Air New Zealand said it expected biofuel to make up about 10 per cent of its total fuel burn of 9 million barrels a year by 2013, thereby reducing its carbon footprint by 400,000 tonnes a year. It was the first airline in the world to set such a target.
With analysts widely tipping fuel will dominate the airline's financial results this year the search for a sustainable aviation biofuel has taken on renewed emphasis.
If the jatropha-based biofuel can be produced economically in large volume it will provide a useful hedge against rising crude prices. Moreover, the airline will save on carbon dioxide emissions and the charges on them planned by the European Union.
In June, the airline's chief executive, Rob Fyfe, said jatropha-based fuel would be at least 30 per cent cheaper than jet fuel after oil reached a record US$174 a barrel.
But the global economic crisis has since driven the price down 70 per cent to below US$40 a barrel, well below the forecast airlines had pencilled in when they picked up their hedge protection several months ago.
For the test flight one of the Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400's engines will run on the biofuel, after which it will be stripped and examined.
Chief pilot David Morgan, the general manager of airline operations, says Air New Zealand and its partners will not budge on the three criteria any environmentally sustainable fuel must meet: social, technical and commercial.
Biofuels emit as much carbon as kerosene-based fuel, but the 125,000 hectares of jatropha tree plantations in East Africa and India, where the beans are sourced, are expected to absorb the equivalent of about half the biofuel emissions.
Jatropha is considered the best option to provide commercial volumes of fuel because of its high oil content 30 per cent to 40 per cent and ability to grow readily on non-arable land, so that it does not compete with food crops.
30/12/08 Kris Hall/The Dominion Post /stuff.co.nz

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Categories: Foreign Dec 2008, New Dec 2008