Airline industry could be flying on biofuels in five years

The aviation industry could be powered by biofuels instead of traditional petrol-based products within five years, according to one of the contributors to a study backed by heavyweights including Boeing, Rolls-Royce and Virgin Atlantic.

By Amy Wilson Published: 7:03PM BST 21 Jun 2009

Sustainably produced crops have already been used in a 50:50 blend with petrol to produce jet fuel used in a series of successful test flights, and that product could be certified and ready for use within two years, Boeing executives have said.
However, a fuel made entirely from plants could be certified as early as 2013, according to Jennifer Holmgren, of UOP, the technology-licensing division of US engineering giant Honeywell.

She has worked with Boeing, engine-makers GE and Rolls-Royce and a number of large airlines including Virgin and Continental, on a study into the 50:50 blend of fuel, which will be submitted to international standards association ASTM to gain official approval for the use of biofuels in planes. That approval could come as soon as 2010.
In the 50:50 blended fuel, the biofuel element produces between 60pc and 80pc less carbon than the petroleum element, Ms Holmgren said.
It will take considerably longer for the world's entire fleet of planes to convert to using only biofuels, depending on the availability of sufficient crops to produce it.
The progress in developing an alternative to petrol-based fuel has developed faster than anybody in the industry had expected, she said, and that interest has not died away now that the oil price has come down from its record highs of last year.
"Everybody has said we have to diversify our fuel stocks, even though the petroleum price has come down," she said.
But Ms Holmgren highlighted that any alternative fuel will struggle to compete on price with petrol in the early years.
"The feedstocks are very expensive but as we build the market, more people will grow energy crops."