Eideard

One of the aircraft on display at next week’s Paris Air Show will be Boeing’s new 747-8 Freighter. While the 76-meter (250-foot) jumbo jet will no doubt be pretty impressive to see on the ground, what many gawkers may not realize is that its flight from Seattle to Paris will have marked an aviation milestone – it will be the first time a commercial aircraft has crossed the Atlantic Ocean using biofuel.

All four of the plane’s General Electric GEnx-2B engines will be burning a blend of 15 percent camelina-based biofuel and 85 percent traditional Jet-A kerosene fuel. Camelina is a plant that is sometimes grown for animal feed, but is increasingly grown specifically for use in aviation biofuel.

No changes needed to be made to the aircraft, its engines or its operating procedures in order to use the blended fuel. According to Boeing, in tests of other biofuels, the aircraft have actually performed slightly better than they did using pure kerosene fuel.

The use of such fuels is reportedly part of the company’s effort to reduce the environmental impact of their aircraft, while also improving mileage and reducing engine noise. The biofuel-burning 747-8 Freighter should be entering regular service in coming months, with what Boeing describes as “a double-digit reduction in carbon emissions.”

Bravo! While our military presses ahead into using modern alternative fuel sources, it’s great to see the primo builder of big aircraft in the United States take a dramatic step like this.

The seeds of a lowly weed could cut jet fuel’s cradle-to-grave carbon emissions by 84 percent.

David Shonnard analyzed the carbon dioxide emissions of jet fuel made from camelina oil over the course of its life cycle, from planting to tailpipe. “Camelina jet fuel exhibits one of the largest greenhouse gas emission reductions of any agricultural feedstock-derived biofuel I’ve ever seen,” he said. “This is the result of the unique attributes of the crop–its low fertilizer requirements, high oil yield, and the availability of its coproducts, such as meal and biomass, for other uses.”

Camelina sativa originated in Europe and is a member of the mustard family, along with broccoli, cabbage and canola. Sometimes called false flax or gold-of-pleasure, it thrives in the semi-arid conditions of the Northern Plains; the camelina used in the study was grown in Montana.

Oil from camelina can be converted to a hydrocarbon green jet fuel that meets or exceeds all petroleum jet fuel specifications. The fuel is a “drop-in” replacement that is compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure, from storage and transportation to aircraft fleet technology…

Because camelina needs little water or nitrogen to flourish, it can be grown on marginal agricultural lands. “Unlike ethanol made from corn or biodiesel made from soy, it won’t compete with food crops,” said Shonnard. “And it may be used as a rotation crop for wheat, to increase the health of the soil…”

I’m a firm advocate of running biofuel wherever and whenever possible. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. It’s even high in omega-3 fatty acids.