ATW Daily News

Boeing believes in 'second-generation' biofuels

Monday February 11, 2008

Boeing is upbeat on its progress with what it terms "second-generation" biofuels and believes regular commercial services could be operating within five years.

Addressing an industry environmental conference in Sydney, Head of Environmental Strategy Bill Glover said that in the past two years he "changed from being a skeptic to an enthusiastic supporter of sustainable biofuels," adding, "It will take time to collect the data and get confidence [in the fuel], but an aircraft powered by a biofuel blend could be flying as early as five years' time. Within 10 years we can have a significant impact on the market and on the carbon footprint of aviation."

Feasibility studies will begin this month with Virgin Atlantic Airways and GE, while Air New Zealand and Rolls-Royce come onboard later this year. Glover said there has been substantial progress over the past 18 months.

He explained that the industry cannot use what he termed "first-generation" biofuels such as ethanol because of the low energy content but that newer products do meet specifications. The new fuel must be interchangeable with current jet fuel, he said. It "must act like the fuel already being used and meet all the technical specifications."

Glover noted that "second-generation" biofuels were "designed to avoid the problems of first-generation fuels that replaced grain stocks, used large quantities of water or required vast areas of agricultural land." He said the industry could grow the entire feedstock for the current aviation fleet in an area the size of Belgium.

by Geoffrey Thomas

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