Continental Airlines Conducts Biofuels Test Flight

Continental Airlines successfully completed a test flight of an unmodified Boeing 737-800 with one engine running on a mixture of 50% biofuels and 50% aviation jet fuel yesterday. This marks the first test flight undertaken by an American airline on biofuels and data gained from the test indicate that the fuel performed well, perhaps even better than standard jet fuel.

“The airplane performed perfectly,” test pilot Rich Jankowski said. “There were no problems. It was textbook.”

The plane burned 3,600 pounds of a 50-50 jet fuel-biofuel mix in one engine and roughly 3,700 pounds of traditional fuel in the other, meaning the test batch was somewhat more efficient, he said.

The biofuel mixture used was a mixture of algae and jatropha derived fuels. The algae based fuel was provided by Sapphire Energy and the jatropha based fuel was provided by Terasol Energy.

Source : Houston Chronicle