have announced the successful test flight of their new jet fuel which is a blend of traditional jet fuel – Jet A, jatropha and algae. The fuel was tested on a 2 engine 737 powered aircraft with CFM engines, and the 2 hour test flight demonstration marks the first sustainable biofuel flight by a commercial carrier using a two-engine aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 equipped with CFM International CFM56-7B engines.
The jatropha blend was provided by Terasol Energy whereas the algae component by Sapphire Energy (who recently received a $US 100 million fund from Bill Gates to research and develop sustainable algae fuel).
As the Continental Airlines website states the 3 forms of fuel were divided up; the traditional jet A fuel was put in one engine 50%, whereas the other contained the bio-fuel mixture 47% jatropha and 3% algae. The aircraft engaged in both normal and non-normal maneuvers and all data was recorded on board.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, Rome-Italy
Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
