Page 13 - AAA NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018 Online Magazine

BIOFUEL

REVOLUTION

The momentum for sustainable
aviation fuels is now unstoppable

Jay Menon

irlines across the globe, battling volatile aviation fuel a Bombardier Q400 flight, from Dehradun
prices, are turning to affordable fuel substitutes. Major to Delhi, which partially used bio jetfuel. The
carriers including JetBlue Airways Corp., Cathay Pacific flight, which carried 28 people, used 75 per
AAirways Ltd and United Continental Holdings Inc. are cent of the regular aviation turbine fuel and
planning larger-scale usage of biofuel from 2019 and have 25 per cent of bio jetfuel made from the jatro-
agreed to take delivery of millions of gallons of biofuel annually pha plant. According to the airline’s chairman,
as a short- and long-term solution to unpredictable oil markets. Ajay Singh, this was the first commercial
biofuel flight by an airline in the developing
Making a Beginning world. Stating the reason behind biofuel’s rise
JetBlue plans to begin taking delivery of about 33 million gallons in the aviation industry, Singh says, “It has
of biofuel annually as part of a 10-year deal with Philadelphia- the potential to reduce our dependence on
based SG Preston Co. The fuel agreement will cover about 20 traditional aviation fuel by up to 50 per cent
per cent of the airline’s annual fuel use at JFK International on every flight and bring down fares.”
Airport. Similarly, Cathay Pacific and Qantas Airways Ltd. also
have large biofuel supply agreements that will begin in 2019 and In the face of renewed sanctions on Iranian
2020, respectively, according to IATA. Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. oil exports and accelerating trade tensions
also said that it would use a biofuel derived from waste gases between the US and China, oil has had a
emitted by steel mills in a process developed by LanzaTech Inc. volatile year. Rising oil prices may be most
Legacy carriers such as United and KLM/Air France have been keenly felt among airlines, and the increasing
driving forces behind development, but even low-cost carriers fuel costs are typically passed on to pas-
like Mexico’s Interjet and Australia’s Jetstar Airways have used sengers through fare increases and fewer
biofuels. United isn’t new to biofuels–it made its first test flight cheap seats.
with a biofuel in 2009, and since 2016, has been making regu-
larly scheduled flights from LAX using fuel from World Energy, What’s Biofuel?
an L.A.-based start-up that turns agricultural waste into biofuel. Industry rules say the maximum amount of
biofuel allowed in fuel mixtures is 50 per
In India, low-cost private carrier SpiceJet operated a test flight, cent. Biofuel is made from any plant or animal

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