Air NZ plans a nutty take-off to trial biofuel

Before Christmas, Air New Zealand will fly a jumbo jet out of Auckland partly powered by oil from a Caribbean nut.

"We are on track to meet our goal of operating the world's first test flight on a large passenger aircraft using fuel sourced from jatropha in the last quarter of this year," says Air New Zealand's general manager airline operations, Captain David Morgan.

The airline today complained, in financial results released to the NZX, that its fuel costs went up $300 million last year. Jet fuel prices have recently been as high as $US174 ($NZ250) a barrel, and a biofuel can be made for about 30 percent less.

But airlines are mainly looking to biofuels to meet the expectations of affluent customers increasingly looking at the carbon footprint involved in international flights.

This increasing focus on environmental concerns has accelerated international development of biofuels seen as offering significant environmental and economic benefits including lower carbon emissions.

Both Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic have said they expect the actual biofuels to be used regularly in planes are likely to come from the developing technology for refining pond scum to extract lipids, and Qantas has also said biofuel development is being fast-tracked.

Air New Zealand said its first test flight will use biofuel produced from jatropha curcus -- a nut which grows in tropical, semi-arid regions -- which is already being refined in the United States for testing by engine manufacturer Rolls Royce.

Its planned use in one of the four engines on a Boeing 747-400 is part of the airline's ambitious plan to have 10 percent of its fleet operating on hybrid fuels within five years. By 2013, it expects to use at least one million barrels of environmentally sustainable fuel a year.

Captain Morgan said that once the fuel being refined in the US had been approved by Rolls Royce, the airline would be able to set a date for the test flight, subject to regulatory approvals from the Civil Aviation Authority.

The test, a return flight from Auckland Airport, would involve one of the Boeing 747's four engines being powered by a mix of jatropha and conventional Jet A1 fuel.

The oil being refined comes from southeast Africa and India and has been sourced from seeds grown on environmentally sustainable plantations. Jatropha plants grow to 3m high, have high water efficiency, and produce seed containing between 30 and 40 percent inedible oil.

About 125,000ha of jatropha would be needed to produce a million barrels of fuel -- which is one reason Air NZ expects that "second-generation" biofuels for aviation will come from sustainable sources such as sewage ponds.

"We would not do it if it meant replacing food crops or forests for fuel nut plantations -- it has to be socially acceptable," Captain Morgan said.