Air New Zealand successfully tests flying a jetliner

[MrsCat 6]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A passenger jet powered in part by vegetable oil successfully completed a two-hour flight Tuesday to test a biofuel that could lower airplane emissions and cut costs, Air New Zealand said.

One engine of a Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel.

This year has seen an unprecedented push for alternative fuels by airlines, which were slammed by skyrocketing oil prices earlier in 2008 and are now bracing for a falloff in air travel in the face of a global economic slowdown.

While Air New Zealand couldn't say whether the blend would be cheaper than standard jet fuel since jatropha is not yet produced on a commercial scale, the company expects the blend to be "cost competitive," according to company spokeswoman Tracy Mills.

Biofuels were once regarded as impractical for aviation because most freeze at the low temperatures encountered at cruising altitudes. But tests show jatropha, whose seeds yield an oil already used to produce fuels like biodiesel, has an even lower freezing point than jet fuel.

. . . . . . . . . .

In February, Boeing and Virgin Atlantic carried out a similar test flight that included a biofuel mixture of palm and coconut oil — but was dismissed as a publicity stunt by environmentalists who said the fuel could not be produced in the quantities needed for commercial aviation use.

Biofuels emit as much carbon as kerosene-based jet fuel, but jatropha — a Mexican plant that grows in warm climates — absorbs about half the carbon that jatropha-based fuels release. Air New Zealand's proposed blend, for example, would mean a one-quarter reduction in the carbon footprint of standard jet fuel.

. . . . . . . . . .

While the airline heralded the flight as successful, Air New Zealand Group Manager Ed Sims cautioned that it will be at least 2013 before the company can ensure easy access to the large quantities of jatropha it would need to use the biofuel on all of its flights.

"Clearly we are a long, long way from being able to source commercially quantifiable amounts of the fuel and then be able to move that amount of fuel around the world to be able to power the world's airlines is still some years off," Sims told New Zealand's National Radio.

. . . . . . . . . .

The company hopes that by 2013, 10 percent of its flights will be powered, at least in part, by biofuels, Mills said. Most of those using the blend would be short haul domestic services.

The flight, initially scheduled for earlier this month, was postponed after an Air New Zealand A320 Airbus crashed off Perpignan on the south coast of France on Nov. 27, killing all seven on board.

http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworl...0,3571554.story

[NickD 202]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A passenger jet powered in part by vegetable oil successfully completed a two-hour flight Tuesday to test a biofuel that could lower airplane emissions and cut costs, Air New Zealand said.

One engine of a Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel.

This year has seen an unprecedented push for alternative fuels by airlines, which were slammed by skyrocketing oil prices earlier in 2008 and are now bracing for a falloff in air travel in the face of a global economic slowdown.

While Air New Zealand couldn't say whether the blend would be cheaper than standard jet fuel since jatropha is not yet produced on a commercial scale, the company expects the blend to be "cost competitive," according to company spokeswoman Tracy Mills.

Biofuels were once regarded as impractical for aviation because most freeze at the low temperatures encountered at cruising altitudes. But tests show jatropha, whose seeds yield an oil already used to produce fuels like biodiesel, has an even lower freezing point than jet fuel.

. . . . . . . . . .

In February, Boeing and Virgin Atlantic carried out a similar test flight that included a biofuel mixture of palm and coconut oil — but was dismissed as a publicity stunt by environmentalists who said the fuel could not be produced in the quantities needed for commercial aviation use.

Biofuels emit as much carbon as kerosene-based jet fuel, but jatropha — a Mexican plant that grows in warm climates — absorbs about half the carbon that jatropha-based fuels release. Air New Zealand's proposed blend, for example, would mean a one-quarter reduction in the carbon footprint of standard jet fuel.

. . . . . . . . . .

While the airline heralded the flight as successful, Air New Zealand Group Manager Ed Sims cautioned that it will be at least 2013 before the company can ensure easy access to the large quantities of jatropha it would need to use the biofuel on all of its flights.

"Clearly we are a long, long way from being able to source commercially quantifiable amounts of the fuel and then be able to move that amount of fuel around the world to be able to power the world's airlines is still some years off," Sims told New Zealand's National Radio.

. . . . . . . . . .

The company hopes that by 2013, 10 percent of its flights will be powered, at least in part, by biofuels, Mills said. Most of those using the blend would be short haul domestic services.

The flight, initially scheduled for earlier this month, was postponed after an Air New Zealand A320 Airbus crashed off Perpignan on the south coast of France on Nov. 27, killing all seven on board.

http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworl...0,3571554.story

We don't deep fry, claim it's not healthy for you, course claim that anything you eat is not healthy for you, but on occasion using a tad of olive oil in a frying pan for fish. Not enough oil left over to grease the back wheel on my little red wagon, let alone to power a jet airplane. Two major ethanol plants had to shut down in my state, didn't count on the price of crude oil dropping way down, but even more important, created such a huge demand for corn, it went up from a $1.50 to over nine bucks a bushel! Also drastically increasing the price of meat and diary goods in the stores.

Feel people trying to use products we eat directly or indirectly for powering these machines are nuts. Hmmm, maybe they can use nuts to power jets. Not the kind of nuts that grow on trees, but the nuts that come up with this #######.

[Reba 2]

Frying food is perfectly healthy for you, unless you're using melted Crisco.

I think if they can grow enough crops to power planes with bio-fuel all the power to them, and thank you very much. Its about fricken time.

[NickD 202]

Frying food is perfectly healthy for you, unless you're using melted Crisco.

I think if they can grow enough crops to power planes with bio-fuel all the power to them, and thank you very much. Its about fricken time.

From the best estimates, the capacity of this earth is 8 billion people, we are 75% there already without enough growing space to even support our own needs. The machines we have been building for the last 150 years are in competition with us for the food we eat and the air we need to breathe. Already a lot of objection to cutting down rain forests for more crop land. Enough deuterium in the oceans to give us all the clean power we need for millions of years, should direct our resources to developing that kind of energy, not the stuff we need to eat and breathe.

Ha, read about these guys driving all over town in a gas guzzling van picking up a gallon here or a gallon there, then even burning more fossil fuels to distill it, and having the absurd nerve to call themselves, green. Now if they purified that stuff to deep fry more potatoes, may have something worthwhile. One SUV can eat more in a year that would feed over a thousand families, just so some idiot can have the feeling of power when running over Honda Civics.

[Waldo 0]

I know the owner of Quantas was doing research for finding alternative fuels for aircraft. BTW I saw my first A380 in LAX which was being ready'ed by Quantas. I wasn't really impressed by the exterior but the pictures I've seen of the interior are breath taking!