Virgin Airlines To Test Biofuel
Biofuel used for commercial air travel? I hadn’t really considered it. Thankfully, Virgin Airlines has.
According to an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Virgin Jet To Use Biofuel Blend In Test Flight, a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-400 will fly from London’s Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam fueled by biofuel.
Although no passengers will be on board, the contents of the plane’s gas tank will have everyone in the airline industry watching.
The trip will be the first time a commercial aircraft has flown on biofuel.
Airline industry officials, environmentalists and energy companies all have a huge interest in the future of air travel as it pertains to fuel consumption, carbon emissions and global warming.
The move has both environmental and business ramifications:
From the business perspective, the airlines are under great financial pressure because of soaring fuel costs; the price of crude oil is consistently flirting with $100 per barrel. On the environmental side of things, aircraft represent up to 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the U.S. transportation sector, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Additionally, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, greenhouse gas emissions from domestic aircraft are expected to increase 60 percent by 2025. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that increases in air transportation over the next 50 years will result in a threefold increase in aircraft CO2 emissions and a 13 percent increase in ozone.
You have to hand it to Sir Richard Branson. The man is savvy: this be a huge step towards environmentally-friendly air travel, something that seemed out of reach. But the positive change would also have an enormous impact on commercial airlines.
While the biofuel experiment was announced in 2007, Virgin is apparently months ahead of schedule.
However, it is cautioned that testing and rollout will be tougher in the US.
All aircraft engines must be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. FAA approval is specific to the fuel that is used with each particular aircraft engine and engine type.
So, as it stands, no other type of fuel can currently be used in America.
Kudos to Virgin Airlines, and Sir Richard Branson, for making this historic first step.
“This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected,” Branson said in a statement. “The demonstration flight will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint.”
