'Jetropha' flight takes to skies

Reuters

FIELD WORK: A woman works in a jatropha plantation near Mumbai, India. A fuel made from a blend of petrol and the oily jatropha nut will be tested today by Air New Zealand.

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A jet takes to Auckland's skies this morning for the world's first commercial test flight powered by a second-generation biofuel.

A 50:50 blend of the oily nut from the jatropha tree and Jet A1 fuel will power the two-hour exercise that will be monitored by representatives from Boeing, Rolls-Royce and biofuel specialist Honeywell's UOP.

The flight crew will conduct fuel tests measuring the performance of the engine and fuel systems at various altitudes and under a variety of operating conditions.

Air New Zealand said it expected biofuel to make up about 10 per cent of its total fuel burn of 9 million barrels a year by 2013, thereby reducing its carbon footprint by 400,000 tonnes a year. It was the first airline in the world to set such a target.

With analysts widely tipping fuel will dominate the airline's financial results this year the search for a sustainable aviation biofuel has taken on renewed emphasis.

If the jatropha-based biofuel can be produced economically in large volume it will provide a useful hedge against rising crude prices. Moreover, the airline will save on carbon dioxide emissions and the charges on them planned by the European Union.

In June, the airline's chief executive, Rob Fyfe, said jatropha-based fuel would be at least 30 per cent cheaper than jet fuel after oil reached a record US$174 a barrel.

But the global economic crisis has since driven the price down 70 per cent to below US$40 a barrel, well below the forecast airlines had pencilled in when they picked up their hedge protection several months ago.

Air New Zealand has hedged 69 per cent of its expected total fuel consumption for the year to June (2009), resulting in an estimated net loss from hedges of more than NZ$141 million if current prices remain.

The airline has said it plans to eventually power its entire fleet of domestic and international aircraft on 100 per cent biofuel.

For the test flight one of the Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400's engines will run on the biofuel, after which it will be stripped and examined.

Chief pilot David Morgan, the general manager of airline operations, says Air New Zealand and its partners will not budge on the three criteria any environmentally sustainable fuel must meet: social, technical and commercial.

"Firstly, the fuel source must be environmentally sustainable and not compete with existing food resources.

"The criteria for sourcing the jatropha oil required that the land was neither forest nor virgin grassland within the previous two decades.

"Secondly, the fuel must be a drop-in replacement for traditional jet fuel and technically be at least as good as the product used today [A1 jet fuel].

"Finally, it should be cost competitive with existing fuel supplies and be readily available."

This year, Virgin Atlantic, owned by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, made the first flight using jet fuel blended with 5 per cent biofuel from palm oil.

But the flight was widely dismissed as a publicity stunt because the oil used cannot be grown in commercially viable quantities.

Biofuels emit as much carbon as kerosene-based fuel, but the 125,000 hectares of jatropha tree plantations in East Africa and India, where the beans are sourced, are expected to absorb the equivalent of about half the biofuel emissions.

Jatropha is considered the best option to provide commercial volumes of fuel because of its high oil content 30 per cent to 40 per cent and ability to grow readily on non-arable land, so that it does not compete with food crops.

Only a few years ago biofuels were regarded as uneconomical for aviation because they froze at the low temperatures encountered at cruise altitudes.

However, testing has shown that jatropha has an even lower freezing point than current jet fuel.

Aviation contributes about 2 per cent of total global carbon dioxide emissions, but flying at high altitudes creates other greenhouse effects, including nitrous oxide and water vapour trails, which increase the industry's full footprint to nearer 6 per cent.

An Otago University study found that the 2.4 million international visitors to New Zealand in 2005 created nearly 7.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, about the same amount produced by New Zealand's coal, gas and oil-fired power stations.

JATROPHA GEMS

Jatropha is widely viewed as the perfect biodiesel crop because it is pest and drought resistant. Jatropha trees are productive for 30 to 40 years, grow up to 3 metres high and can be grown on challenging arid land so do not compete with food crops.

It needs at least 600 millimetres of rain annually to thrive, but can survive three years of drought by dropping its leaves. More than 800 million hectares of arid and non-arable land around the world is suitable for plantations.

Seeds in the first year after planting. After five years typical annual yield of a single tree is 3.5 kilograms of beans. Oil pressed from 4kg of seeds needed to make 1 litre of biodiesel 1 hectare should yield an average 2.5 tonnes of oil.

In India, where it is widely used as biodiesel to run motor vehicles, the average cost of 1kg of seeds is 6 rupees (NZ2 cents). Refining jatropha oil into biodiesel costs less than NZ$216 per tonne.

- © Fairfax NZ News