Virgin in historic biofuel flight: babassu and coconut oil fuel, produced by cooperative of small farmers

A historic flight took off from London to Amsterdam today: a jumbo-jet testing one engine with biofuel made from babassu and coconut oil. The flight demonstrated that biofuels can power commercial passenger jets. It also shows the world's poor - 75 percent of who are farmers - can begin to hope to get out of poverty, as the expanding biofuel markets now offer major opportunities for their development.

The biofuel tested in Virgin Atlantic's Boeing 747, based on babassu palm nut oil, was obtained from cooperatives in Brazil who make a living from the extraction. The father of Brazil's bio-jet fuel, Expedito Parente, with who Boeing and Virgin have collaborated, has meanwhile launched a major initiative to alleviate poverty amongst Brazilian forest communities, based on harvesting the babassu palm which grows in the wild on 18 million hectares (previous post).

Science shows there is a very large potential for the production of sustainable biofuels that reduce emissions. There are vast stretches of unused, low value, non-forest land, especially in developing countries. This land base is estimated to be around 1.5 billion hectares. The biofuel potential based on this is estimated to be around 1550Ej by 2050, more than 6 times the world's current total oil consumption. This amount can be met while securing all food, fiber, forest products and fodder needs of growing populations, and without deforestation.

The addition of the aviation sector means that all transport sectors can now be serviced by biofuels. A major market that can benefit the planet and the world's poor now opens. Food and agriculture experts say biofuels can boost food security amongst the world's poor, because rural populations will obtain additional income and much needed investments in land and rural development will at last be made (previous post).

The Virgin Atlantic Boeing Co. 747-400, which took off from London and landed at Amsterdam, had one unmodified engine running on a mixture of about 25 percent biofuel and the rest standard jet kerosene, Branson said today at a Heathrow airport news conference.

The flight, without passengers, is part of a joint project between the London-based airline, Boeing and enginemaker General Electric Co. Airlines and aircraft makers are racing to develop a viable alternative to jet fuel as the price of oil rises and aviation is increasingly blamed for contributing to global warming.

The information gleaned from today's test flight will be evaluated by Virgin, Boeing and GE. After the flight, Chicago- based Boeing will ask other carriers to do tests, which may lead to biofuel-powered commercial flights within five years, according to Billy Glover, Virgin's environment director:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: biodiesel :: coconut :: babassu :: poverty alleviation :: aviation :: Virgin ::

Virgin and GE tested a number of different biofuels produced by Seattle-based Imperium Renewables Inc. before choosing coconut and babassu because they were suitable in initial tests and won't compete with staple food supplies or cause deforestation, the airline said. Babassu nuts are harvested from palms by local workers from the Amazonian rainforest.

Biofuels are not a panacea, there are a whole load of issues, said John Strickland, director of London-based aviation specialist JLS Consulting. Some have the issue of substituting food crops and they don't necessarily produce enough, in terms of volume, to replace kerosene.

Today's flight was approved by the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority. The plane used the biofuel in only one engine, with a separate tank. The aircraft will now go into maintenance and the engine will be examined.

The plane landed at Amsterdam Schiphol airport after reaching a planned maximum altitude of 25,000 feet, Virgin said today. No other details about the flight were released.

Fuel accounts for 30 to 50 percent of airlines' operating costs, and aviation contributes about 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. That's expected to rise to 3 percent by 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

More details about this historic flight will be posted when available.

References:
Bloomberg: Virgin Flies 747 on Biofuel From Coconuts, Babassu - February 24, 2008.

Reuters: Amazon nuts help power first biofuel airline flight - February 24, 2008.

Biopact: Father of bio-jet fuel launches biofuel cooperatives in Brazil to reduce poverty - May 25, 2007