JAL successfully tests biofuel
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Japan Airlines (JAL) has conducted a demonstration flight using a sustainable biofuel primarily refined from the energy crop, camelina. It was the first demo flight using a combination of three sustainable biofuel feedstocks, as well as the first one using Pratt & Whitney engines. The results of the flight are expected to confirm the second-generation biofuel’s operational performance capabilities and potential commercial viability.
The one and half-hour flight using a JAL-owned Boeing 747-300 aircraft, carrying no passengers, took off from Haneda Airport, Tokyo, on 30 January. A 50-50 blend of biofuel and traditional kerosene fuel was tested in one of the aircraft’s four Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines.
Captain Keiji Kobayashi, who piloted the aircraft, said; “Everything went smoothly. There was no difference at all in the performance of the engine powered by the biofuel blend, and the other three engines containing regular jet fuel.”
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