An Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 powered by 50% jatropha curcas based jet fuel had successfully completed a flight lasting for about two hours. One engine of the 747 was fueled by a 50% blend of Jatropha Curcas based jet fuel while the remainder was your average A1 jet fuel.
The flight originated from Auckland International Airport. Testing begun with a full power takeoff then cruising to 35,000 ft. The crew then manually set all four engine controls to check for identical performance readings among the biofuel-powered engine and those using ordinary jet fuel. An added test for the biofuel powered engine was the turning off of the fuel pump at 25,000 ft. This was to test lubrication qualities of the fuel, on whether it would slow down its flow to the engine at high altitude.
UOP, who developed the jatropha curcas based jet fuel, is a division of Honeywell.
According to UOP their biofuel has more energy than the regular A1 jet fuel. More importantly it has a lower freezing point than the usual biofuels. This has always been an Achilles heel of biofuels as they had high freezing points, therefore preventing them from operating in the cold temperatures of the atmosphere.
As of now, the problem with Jatropha based biofuel is the sourcing of the feedstock. They were able to source their Jatropha Curcas seeds from plantations in East Africa and India.
Air New Zealand thinks however that it will only be by 2013 when they will be able to secure large quantities of jatropha to power their planes. They are hoping by that time, at least 10% of their short haul domestic flights can be powered by biofuels.
New Zealand Energy Minister, Gerry Brownlee, also announced that the government is working on plans to pass laws that will make biofuel use in aircraft compulsary. Laws like that could help leapfrog further the Jatropha Curcas industry in New Zealand as well as their neighboring countries, who could supply their requirement for jatropha seeds.
Jatropha Curcas is a hardy plant that can grow in marginal land with little irrigation, making it ideal as a biofuel crop because it won’t have to compete with food groups for fertile land.
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Category: Jatropha, Jet Fuel
