Coconut oil powers 747
UK: Virgin Atlantic carried out the world’s first flight of a
commercial aircraft powered with biofuel yesterday in an effort to show
it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels.
Some analysts praised the jumbo jet test flight from London to
Amsterdam as a potentially useful experiment.
But others criticized it as a publicity stunt and noted scientists
are questioning the environmental benefits of biofuels.
“This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using
clean fuel sooner than expected,” Sir Richard Branson, the airline’s
president, said before the Boeing 747 flew from London’s Heathrow
Airport to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
He said the flight would provide “crucial knowledge that we can use
to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.
Sunday’s flight was partially fueled with a biofuel mixture of
coconut and babassu oil in one of its four main fuel tanks. The jet
carried pilots and several technicians, but no passengers.
Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles predicted this biofuel would
produce much less CO2 than regular jet fuel, but said it will take weeks
to analyze the data from Sunday’s flight.
“It’s great that somebody like Richard is willing to put some of his
billions into an experiment aimed at reducing the climate change impact
of aviation,” said James Halstead, an airline analyst at the London
stockbroker Dawnay Day Lochart.
“But there are a lot of unanswered questions about the usefulness of
biofuels in the battle against global warming,” he said.
The flight is the latest example of how the world’s airlines are
jumping on the environmental bandwagon by trying to find ways of
reducing aviation’s carbon footprint.
These efforts have included finding alternative jet fuels, developing
engines that burn existing fuels more slowly, and changing the way
planes land.
The experiment by Virgin Atlantic and its partners Boeing, General
Electric and Imperium Renewables also comes at a time when high oil
prices and the U. S. economic slowdown are promoting consolidation in
the airline industry.
Aircraft engines cause noise pollution and emit gases and
particulates that reduce air quality and contribute to global warming
and global dimming, where dust and ash from natural and industrial
sources block the sun to create a cooling effect.
About a year ago, the European Commission, the executive of the
European Union, said greenhouse gas emissions from aviation account for
about 3 percent of the total in the EU and have increased by 87 percent
since 1990 as air travel cheapened.
Charles said Virgin’s Boeing 747-400 jet and its engines did not have
to be redesigned to use biofuel on the test flight. AP
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