MADE ITS FIRST FLIGHT WITH BIOFUELS
Boeing [NYSE: BA] has made the world's first flight using "green diesel." “Green diesel” is a sustainable biofuel that is readily available and used in inland transportation. The company flew its ecoDemonstrator 787 on its test flight on December 2, putting 15 percent green diesel and 85 percent petroleum-based aviation fuel in its left engine.
Julie Felgar, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Director of Environmental Strategy and Integration, said: “Green diesel is a huge opportunity to make sustainable aviation biofuel easier to obtain and more affordable to our customers. “We will provide a wealth of data from ecoDemonstrator flights to support efforts to obtain the necessary approvals for this fuel for use in commercial aviation and to help our industry meet its environmental goals.”
Sustainable green diesel is obtained from plant oils, waste cooking oils, and waste animal fats. Boeing had previously identified this fuel as chemically similar to an aviation biofuel called HEFA (hydro-processed esters and fatty acids), which was approved in 2011. Green diesel is a chemically different fuel from "biodiesel", which is also used for inland transportation.
With a production capacity of 800 million gallons (3 billion liters) in the US, Europe, and Asia, green diesel can quickly supply up to 1 percent of global jet fuel demand. With a wholesale price of about $3 per gallon, including US government incentives, green diesel approaches the price parity of petroleum-based jet fuel.
Mike Carriker, Boeing Test and Evaluation, Product Development and 777X Captain Pilot, said, “The aircraft's performance, designed with a green diesel blend, was on par with its performance with conventional jet fuel. This is exactly what we want to see in our test flights with a new type of fuel.”
Green diesel is one of more than 25 new technologies being tested by Boeing's ecoDemonstrator Program on the 787 Dreamliner ZA004. The program accelerates the testing, refinement, and deployment of new technologies and methods that can improve aviation's environmental performance.
From a life-cycle perspective, sustainably produced green diesel reduces carbon emissions by 50 to 90 percent compared to fossil fuels, according to Finland-based Neste Oil, which supplies green diesel to the ecoDemonstrator 787. Flight testing was coordinated by the US Federal Aviation Administration, Rolls-Royce, and Pratt & Whitney, and the fuel was blended by EPIC Aviation.