Biofuel Test Flight - your questions answered
When is Air New Zealand's sustainable biofuel test flight?
What aircraft and engine types were involved in the test?
What was the aim of the flight and what did it involve?
Who are the partners in the test flight?
What is the source fuel for the test flight?
Where was the jatropha sourced from?
How can you be sure the jatropha is sourced from environmentally sustainable farms?
Did you set any criteria your test flight source fuel must meet?
Who certified the fuel as acceptable for use in the test flight?
Has any life cycle analysis been conducted on jatropha?
Why did Air New Zealand do this biofuel flight?
Do jatropha plants need fertilizer?
Why did you only run one engine on the biofuel blend?
Who was onboard the flight/did you take passengers?
Where did the aircraft fly to?
When was Air New Zealand's sustainable biofuel test flight?
It took place in Auckland on December 30, 2008.
What aircraft and engine types were involved in the test?
An Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400, powered by Rolls-Royce engines RB211.
What was the aim of the flight and what did it involve?
The aim of the test flight was to expand the aviation industry's knowledge of a second generation sustainable biofuel and to determine its suitability for use in air travel.
The purpose of the flight was to confirm that the fuel - which has been produced to a specification equal to that of normal jet fuel - meets or exceeds this specification.
The flight's extensive test flight schedule was worked up in association with Boeing and Rolls-Royce. Engine parameters for the biofuel engine were compared to the other three engines in both high and low power tests. It included a full thrust take off, varying climb power settings, engine acceleration tests, and shut down and relights in-flight and on the ground. All this will confirm the fuel's energy levels, specific gravity, economic value and fuel use per mile flown.
Who are the partners in the test flight?
The test flight is a joint initiative between Air New Zealand, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and UOP, a Honeywell company, in commercial aviation's drive for more sustainable air travel for future generations.
What is the source fuel for the test flight?
The fuel that Air New Zealand used is a 50/50 mix of jatropha and Jet A1.
Jatropha is a plant that grows to approximately three metres high and produces seeds that contain inedible lipid oil that is used to produce fuel. Each seed produces between 30 and 40 percent of its mass in oil and jatropha can be grown in a range of difficult conditions, including arid and otherwise non-arable areas, leaving prime areas available for food crops.
Where was the jatropha sourced from?
The jatropha oil Air New Zealand has sourced and refined for its test flight comes from South Eastern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania) and India. It was sourced from seeds grown on environmentally sustainable farms.
How can you be sure the jatropha is sourced from environmentally sustainable farms?
The test flight partners engaged Terasol Energy, a leader in sustainable jatropha development projects, to independently source and certify that the jatropha-based fuel for the flight met all sustainability criteria.
Did you set any criteria your test flight source fuel must meet?
The partners have been non-negotiable about the three criteria any environmentally sustainable fuel must meet for the test flight programme. These are social, technical and commercial.
Firstly, the fuel source must be environmentally sustainable and not compete with existing food resources. Secondly, the fuel must be a drop-in replacement for traditional jet fuel and technically be at least as good as the product used today. Finally, it should be cost competitive with existing fuel supplies and be readily available.
The criteria for sourcing the jatropha oil required that the land was neither forest land nor virgin grassland within the previous two decades. The quality of the soil and climate is such that the land is not suitable for the vast majority of food crops. Furthermore, the farms are rain-fed and not mechanically irrigated.
Once received from Terasol Energy, the jatropha oil was refined through a collaborative effort between Air New Zealand, Boeing and leading refining technology developer UOP, utilising UOP technology to produce jet fuel from renewable sources that can serve as a direct replacement to traditional petroleum-based fuel.
Who certified the fuel as acceptable for use in the test flight?
The fuel was tested over several days by both Rolls-Royce and scientists at independent research company Intertek at its Sunbury Technology Centre in the United Kingdom.
Has any life cycle analysis been conducted on jatropha?
Jatropha can be grown on marginal lands and, as such, the issues around land use change-related life cycle emissions can be mitigated.
The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group, launched in September 2008, has chartered a peer reviewed, independent life cycle and socio-economic sustainability research report, which is expected to be completed in September 2009.
If jatropha takes off as a commercial fuel for either aviation or the motor industry, are you concerned that it may displace food crops, and in turn see their prices further increase?
If Air New Zealand decides to meet its sustainable second generation biofuel needs from jatropha, any crops would have to be certified as coming from land that had not previously been used for competing food crops.
Why did Air New Zealand do this biofuel flight?
Air New Zealand wants to take a leadership role in developing more sustainable air travel for future generations and this is just one part of the scientific research and development process that is required. We are fortunate to be able to do it with partners with the same vision like Boeing, Rolls Royce and UOP.
Do jatropha plants need fertilizer?
Jatropha plants need much less fertilizer than traditional crops currently used for biofuels. For example, Jatropha uses 1/20 of the fertilizer needed for corn.
Why did you only run one engine on the biofuel blend?
Only one engine needs to be utilised to achieve the scientific outcomes of the test flight. Furthermore, under aviation regulations the Boeing 747 is only certified to be able to run one engine on a second generation sustainable biofuel for this test flight.
Who was onboard the flight/are you taking passengers?
The aircraft had four pilots on the flight deck.
The aircraft was flown by Air New Zealand's Boeing 747 Fleet Manager Captain Keith Pattie. There were two engineers on board the flight as observers and no other passengers.
Where did the aircraft fly to?
The test flight flew over the wider Hauraki Gulf area of New Zealand's North Island.
