KLM biofuel flight fuels hopes for green airlines

Airlines have high hopes for a new range of biofuels

Dominic O’Connell

At Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport last Monday a gaggle of aviation executives, politicians and journalists trooped aboard a KLM jumbo jet for a flight to nowhere.
The trip was uneventful — the plane and its 40 occupants circled above Holland for a couple of hours before landing where it took off. However, in a small way, it was historic. It was the first flight by a biofuel-powered airliner to carry passengers.
In fact, the plane was only partly powered by biofuel. One of its four engines ran on a 50:50 blend of biofuel and normal aviation fuel. The biofuel was made from camelina, an inedible green shrub.
Despite the limited experiments to date — Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand and a clutch of other carriers have run test flights without passengers — airline executives are thrilled with biofuels.

Their industry is a target for politicians and environmentalists in the crusade against carbon dioxide emissions and the prospect of a fuel that will allow the industry to grow while reducing its emissions is enticing. “In the decades ahead, the airline industry will be largely dependent on the availability of alternative fuels in its drive to lower emissions,” said Jan Ernst de Groot, KLM’s managing director.
The bright new era of biofuels is still some way off, however, and some experts doubt whether it will ever arrive. The technical challenge of making a biofuel that can replace aviation fuel has largely been cracked, but the new product has yet to be certified for commercial use, and large quantities are unlikely to be available even in the medium term.
Without significant changes to aircraft engines and other systems, biofuels will have to be used in a blend with conventional fuels — probably a 50:50 mix, as with last week’s flight.
Much of the research has been funded by the Pentagon. America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency began work in 2006 to reduce the “military’s reliance on oil to power its aircraft, ground vehicles and non-nuclear ships”.
The agency gave research contracts to several private groups, including one $7m (£4m) award to UOP, a division of Honeywell, the technology group. UOP has provided the fuel for most of the test flights to date, including the Air New Zealand and KLM trials.
It has exceeded expectations. “The initial results show a technical performance that is better than traditional kerosene,” said Bill Glover, head of environmental strategy at Boeing, the aircraft maker.
UOP was already well advanced with production of biodiesel for cars, lorries and other vehicles. It then applied existing refining techniques to make a fuel able to satisfy the stringent demands of aviation — in particular on flashpoints and freezing temperatures.
“The technology is already used in other types of refining,” said Jennifer Holmgren, director of renewable energy and chemicals at UOP. “The trick is in getting high yields from the vegetable feedstock.”
The UOP process can use a number of vegetable oils, but interest is focused on camelina and the equally inedible jatropha, which can be grown on marginal land not being used for food crops.
Depending on the amount of fertiliser needed, the whole biofuel cycle — growing, refining, transportation and use in aircraft — should produce 60% to 80% less carbon dioxide than conventional fuel.
Holmgren said she expected the fuel to be approved for commercial use by the end of next year. UOP is talking to a number of potential licencees about building refineries, the first of which could be open in two-and-a-half years, she said.
Industry groups have set an initial target to produce 600m gallons a year by 2015. This would still be only a fraction of the total needed. The world’s airlines now burn some 85 billion gallons of aviation fuel every year.
Even using the most optimistic estimates of yield, making that much biofuel from camelina or jatropha would need an acreage about three times the size of the UK.
The big hope for the future is algae. Boeing thinks yields from algae could be measured in thousands of gallons an acre, rather than the 150-200 possible from plants. Airline executives say the likely strong demand will result in biofuels being made from a number of different feedstocks.
Appetite will be accelerated by the introduction of carbon trading schemes, under which airlines will have to pay for emissions.
European airlines will be part of a scheme from 2012, and there are moves to create a global trading system. Jonathan Counsell, head of environment at British Airways, said: “When airlines have to start paying for their carbon there will be a real economic incentive to use the fuels.”
Air New Zealand plans to obtain 10% of its fuel from alternative sources by 2013. Rob Fyfe, chief executive, said his airline wanted biofuels to pass three basic tests: the right price, no displacement of food crops or water resources, and direct substitution for conventional aviation fuel.
“We have no interest in biofuels unless we can prove to ourselves that they reduce carbon dioxide emissions across the whole life of the product,” he said. “We want to show that we are the world’s most environmentally-sustainable airline. That fits exactly with the clean, green New Zealand message.”
BA said it has no plans for test flights but is working with Rolls-Royce on an extended ground test on a range of biofuels that should generate valuable data to help with the fuel’s certification for commercial use.
Green Idea
The hemp plant may have a role to play in cutting the carbon dioxide emitted by the building industry. Its fibre is being used as an additive in construction blocks.
Oxford-based Lime Technology, maker of a range of sustainable building products, including thermally efficient wall materials, has created the Hemcrete brand.
The company grows its own hemp in Suffolk.
More information at limetechnology.co.uk