Lufthansa trials biofuel on scheduled flights
Green transport news – by GreenWise staff
15th July 2011
Lufthansa has become the first airline in the world to use biofuel in scheduled flights.
The German airline today announced it was commencing a €6.6 million (£5.8 million) trial using biokerosene on one of its regular scheduled internal flights over the next six months.A
Lufthansa Airbus A321, which travels between Hamburg and Frankfurth four times a day, will run on a 50/50 mix of regular fuel and
biosynthetic kerosene in one of its engines. The first flight of the six-month trial took off this morning from Hamburg operating under flight number LH 013. Using the
biofuel in the trial will reduce
CO2 emissions on the scheduled flights by up to 1,500 tonnes, Lufthansa said.
Aircraft account for an estimated two to four per cent of
C02 emissions and that share is expected to grow significantly over the next four decades if left unchecked.
Biokerosene, which has been approved for jet engines by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), has already been tested in a series of airline trials where it has been shown to perform as well, if not slightly better than oil-based kerosene. One of the attractions of biofuels is that they can be used as so-called 'drop-in fuels’ – effectively mixed in with kerosene fuel and gradually introduced over time. Another advantage is they can be used for all aircraft types without any need for modifications to the aircraft or its engines.
Lufthansa first indicated that it planned to introduce biofuels on some of its commercial flights last year. Today’s announcement makes it the first airline in the world to do so on scheduled flights.
"Lufthansa is the first airline worldwide to use biofuel in scheduled daily flight operations. We are thus continuing to steadily implement our proven and successful strategy for sustainability," said Dr. Christoph Franz, chairman and ceo of the Lufthansa Group.
Sustainably sourced
The biofuel being used in the Lufthansa flight is made from a combination of sustainably sourced jatropha and camelina mixed with animal fats, the company said. It is supplied by Finnish oil company Neste Oil.
The biofuel trial, which is part funded by the German government, is part of Lufthansa’s 'climate protection stragegy' to reduce carbon emissions within the
air transport sector. The airline has already improved its fuel efficiency by over 30 per cent since 1991 and today its fleet has an average fuel consumption of 4.2 litres per 100 passenger-kilometres.
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