Airline Flies a 747 on Fuel From a Plant

[IDemo]

New York Times
By BETTINA WASSENER
Published: December 30, 2008

Air New Zealand tested a jet fuel made from the jatropha plant on Tuesday as the airline searches for an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to crude oil.

For two hours, pilots tested the oil, in a 50-50 blend with conventional jet fuel in one of the four Rolls-Royce engines powering a Boeing 747-400 aircraft — the first test flight by a commercial airline using jatropha oil. Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand’s chief executive, called the flight a milestone in commercial aviation. “Today we stand at the earliest stages of sustainable fuel development and an important moment in aviation history,” he said. The project has been 18 months in the works.

Unlike other biofuel crops like soybeans and corn, jatropha needs little water or fertilizer and can be grown almost anywhere — even in sandy, saline or otherwise infertile soil. Each seed produces 30 to 40 percent of its mass in oil, giving it a high per-acre yield, specialists said.

The results of the flight — and two others planned by rival airlines in the United States and Japan in January — will be closely watched by an industry that is trying to shift toward renewable, low-emissions fuels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/business/31air.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. If this is the same stuff...

The pioneer of this process was talking about digging trenches in from the Gulf to irrigate desert areas to grow this stuff.

Fascinating.

[poverlay]

2. Not to be thick, but does that mean it can thrive on salt water and sand? Hard to believe... n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Yep. From the OP:

Unlike other biofuel crops like soybeans and corn, jatropha needs little water or fertilizer and can be grown almost anywhere — even in sandy, saline or otherwise infertile soil. Each seed produces 30 to 40 percent of its mass in oil, giving it a high per-acre yield, specialists said.

[Nihil]

4. I suppose an accurate headline wouldn't have been particularly interesting ...

... "Airline Flies 12.5% of a 747 for 2 hours on Fuel From a Plant"

:shrug:

> For two hours, pilots tested the oil, in a 50-50 blend with conventional
> jet fuel in one of the four Rolls-Royce engines powering a Boeing 747-400
> aircraft

They could get a much better reduction in jet fuel usage by taxing the
damn stuff instead of getting the planet to subsidise air travellers ...

:mad:

[Nederland]

5. It's called testing

Unless you'd like them to fly all four engines on a 100% mix and and risk killing the crew just to get a better headline?

I guess people will always find something to bitch about... :eyes:

[Nihil]

6. Don't be a prick - it's called "hype".

"Testing" works with facts. "Hype" works with inaccurate headlines.

What the plane did was "testing".
What the report did was "hype".

> I guess people will always find something to bitch about... :eyes:

I guess *some* people will always swallow whatever crap is put in front
of them and use hyperbole & ridicule rather than accept they are wrong.
:eyes: