Success Biofuel fly Jet

A motorized jet plane with some of them using fuel vegetable successfully fly for two hours a day, Tuesday (30/12). "Trial use of biofuel is intended to reduce gas emissions and dispose of the aircraft cost," said the source on the Air New Zealand.

In the pilot, a Boing 747-400 driven engine with the fuel mixture of castor oil (jatropha) and standard jet fuel type A1 (Avtur) with the composition 50:50.

Melambungnya price of fuel oil throughout the year ago in 2008 forced many companies need to find a flight to alternatifi new fuel replacement. Moreover, this year until next year also occur due to decrease in the number of trips pelambatan perekonomuan global overhaul the global financial crisis.

So far the Air New Zealand can not give exact numbers savings by the use of a mixture of fuel and Avtur vegetable, because it has not produced the commercial. However, the spokesperson for the company this flight, Tracy Mills estimates the use of a mixture of fuel that will kompetitiv of the price.

During this biofuel to be treated specially dicobakan not on the flight because the world will be frozen at low temperatures when the plane are exploring altitude. However, the pilot menunjukkab that have jatropha freezing point lower than the oil jet.

Chief Executive Air New Zealand Rob Fyfe his flight as the pilot was important milestone for the world's commercial flights. "Today is an important historical moment flight. We are at an early stage of development of sustainable fuel," he said seusi flight testing.

Ditambahkannya, Air New Zealand flight will be the most environmentally friendly in the world. For, this flight is the first to use jatropha as a fuel blend.

In February, the Boing and Virgin Atlantic to try to fly by using a mixture of fuel and oil palm A1, but the flight got a lot of criticism from environmental activists, given that the palm can not be produced in a number of very large for the purposes of flight.

Biofuel carbon emissions actually issued with the same number of kerosene fuel into the plane so far. However, jatropha which is a tropical plant that is able to absorb half the carbon dilepaskannya.

Biofuel actually be produced from many types of plants, but the debate still continues with many related interests. Ethanol produced from corn, for example, called a trigger-food price increase, because a lot of corn and then sold to the biofuel industry, so that the food supply to decrease.

Instead of jatropha, Mills said, could be planted on land once was critical, so it does not need to dipertentangkan with food production. "Ethanol is a first generation biofuel, jatropha, while the second generation," said Mills.

35,000 feet

Biofuel flight testing is done from Auckland International Airport. Aircraft offshore base with full power and then comb elevation 35,000 feet (10,600 meters). Kru aircraft have been set up all the equipment to read the performance of fuel, either oil or biofuel jet.

At an altitude of 25,000 feet or 7,600 meters, the pilot Captain David Morgan shut off the fuel pump for the wet mixture to ensure that fuel is still flowing to the engine.

Source : Kompas