Le Bourget Air Show: In a highly-competitive environment, Airbus and Boeing are testing biofuels to lower air pollution in air traffic transport

Le Bourget Air Show was the backdrop to the first trans-Atlantic flight for a commercial aircraft operating on biofuels, as made by the new Boeing Cargo carrier (747-8 Freighter). Making use of the mixture of cameline-based biofuel (15%) and traditional kerosene (85%) did not require any adjustments to the aircraft, Boeing stated, or to its engines or operational pre-flight procedures.

At the same time, Airbus scored another world premier by flying a Diamond DA42 100%-run on farmed-algal biofuel.

The European aircraft manufacturer had also completed, a few weeks earlier, a first demonstration flight of an Airbus A320, using jatropha-based biofuel.

Since the first test flights began in 2008, synthetic fuels and so-called second-generation biofuels, made from non-agricultural raw materials, have stirred great hope for airlines, subject to increasing pressure to drastically cut back on their CO2 emissions. 

Another indicator of the airline industry’s growing interest in renewable energy sources of this kind can be found in the fact that the latest edition of the Le Bourget Air Show offered, for the first time, this year, an area dedicated to alternative aeronautic fuels.

References:
http://www.boeing.fr/ViewContent.do?id=64743&Year=2011&aContent=Le%20Boeing%20747-8%20Freighter,%20aliment%C3%A9%20en%20biocarburant,%20atterrira%20au%20Bourget%20lundi
http://www.campagnesetenvironnement.fr/airbus-et-boeing-testent-les-biocarburants-3455.html
http://www.enerzine.com/6/11732+a320---1er-vol-utilisant-du-biocarburant-au-jatropha+.html
http://www.salon-du-bourget.fr/fr/le-salon/actualites-du-salon#45

Elizabete DA SILVA MARQUES, Analyst