Biofuels Take Off as New Alternative to Jet Fuel

This week in Energy Business Daily “Jet Biofuels Take Off.” Jet fuel is expensive and makes up a large part of an airline’s budget. However, now biofuels are starting to pick up interest among the airlines.  According to Energy Business Daily,

“British tycoon Richard Branson has long touted biofuels as a way for the airline industry to address volatile oil prices, climate change and peak oil. Last February, one of his Virgin Atlantic jumbo jets was the very first commercial airliner to fly with biofuel. Air New Zealand and KLM have also completed biofuel test flights.

Airplane manufacturing giants Airbus and Boeing are working to ensure their planes are capable of running on biofuels. Boeing has already completed five test flights using biofuels and Airbus recently announced plans with JetBlue Airways to test biofuels as well. British Airways and the US-based Solena Group announced an agreement earlier this month to build Europe’s first plant to produce jet fuel from organic waste. The plant is expected to go online in 2014 and produce 16 million gallons of fuel annually, all of which will be sold to British Airways. The fuel is still awaiting regulatory approval in Britain.

Last week two of the Middle East’s biggest airlines – Etihad and Qatar Airways – became partners in a project to demonstrate the commercial viability of an aviation biofuel using a farmed saltwater plant feedstock.”

There’s no question that biofuels are hot.

To learn more about biofuels visit BIO’s biofuels page as well as our blog Biofuels and Climate Change.