Air New Zealand tests jatropha as fuel
Dec 31, 2008 Green Technologies, Information of the Day
Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand successfully undertook its first biofuel powered flight yesterday, joining Virgin Airlines in exploring newer alternatives for Aviation Turbine Fuel.
During a two-hour flight to and from Auckland International Airport, the Air New Zealand crew sought to test how the fuel, made from jatropha plants and blended 50:50 with Jet A1 fuel in the tank of one of four Rolls-Royce engines on a 747-400, stood up to use at high altitudes and in other demanding conditions.
Air New Zealand had Boeing and a subsidiary of Honewell as partners in the test flight. While there has been a lot of debate on whether biofuel really cut down emissions or whether they cause food crisis, jatropha is seen as promising because it can grow under hostile climate and lands unsuitable for foodcrop production.
Watch a video of the people behind this attempt after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Air New Zealand, biofuel, Boeing, Jatropha
Air Newzealand to try biofuel in its 747
Nov 12, 2008 Information of the Day
Boeing 747
Air New Zealand and Boeing set 3 December as the date for the airline’s sustainable biofuels flight from Auckland using a 747-400 jetliner. Conducted in partnership with Rolls-Royce and UOP, one of the airplane’s four Rolls-Royce RB211 engines will run a 50/50 blend of Jet A-1 and UOP’s “green jet” fuel—a synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) derived from jatropha.
This comes after a Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew between London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts in February 2008. Earlier that month, Airbus had tested another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Air New Zealand, biodiesel, biofuel, Boeing