Posted on June 25th, 2011
Two years ago at the last Paris Air Show, jet biofuels were just talked about, but at the airshow this week they appear to have come of age. On Saturday, Honeywell made history by landing a Gulfstream G450 at Paris Le Bourget after the first transatlantic flight using a blend of biofuel and jet-A. (Watch AINtv video of the jet’s arrival.) The trip’s green credentials can be measured in the 5.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide saved in the course of the seven-hour flight from Morristown, N.J. The G450’s number-one (left) engine burned a 50/50 blend of Honeywell UOP’s Green Jet Fuel and jet-A during the entire flight. Adding to the “greening” of the 2011 Paris Air Show was the arrival on Monday evening of a Boeing 747-8F that used a blend of 85-percent jet-A and 15-percent Honeywell’s biofuel, but burning it in all four engines on a nonstop flight from Seattle to Paris. Meanwhile San Diego-based Sapphire Energy announced at the airshow that it aims to be producing 20,000 barrels of its algae-based jet biofuel per day by 2014. The firm is now talking with refineries in the U.S. to turn the crude product into oil.
Tags: jet biofuels
