There were a couple of strange things about the Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747
that taxied out along one of London Heathrow’s two main runways and took off
into the bright sky late Sunday morning. First, there were only five people
on board, while more than 100 watched intently from a nearby hangar. Second,
the plane was the first commercial jet ever to fly on biofuel, a fuel
produced from plant matter instead of petroleum or other fossil fuels. “This
is the first stage on a journey towards renewable fuel,” Virgin founder
Richard Branson told reporters in the hangar shortly before takeoff, his
voice drowned out every now and then by the roar of overhead planes. “It’s
the equivalent of those exciting first few steps of a baby.”
As it happens, Virgin’s eco-plane ran only one engine on the experimental fuel; the other three burned standard jet fuel. And the biofuel-powered engine was using a
blend of conventional jet fuel and biofuel: 80/20 in favor of the regular
stuff. In total, then, just 5% of the 49,000-lb fuel load
consisted of the novelty: a special mix of coconut oil and oil from the
Brazilian babassu plant, prepared by Seattle-based Imperium Renewables over the last 18 months and
tested by General Electric Aviation in Ohio.
Even as environmental groups roundly pooh-poohed the flight as a publicity
stunt, Virgin and its partners stressed that percentages weren’t the point.
The event was, the businesses claim, meant merely as a demonstration. “What
we’re proving today is that biofuel can be used for a plane,” Branson told
reporters. “Two years ago, people said it was absolutely impossible.” Among
the fears: that biofuel would freeze before a plane reached
cruising altitude, or that it would require massive and costly changes to
the aircraft or fueling systems to work at all. Those prognosticators were
proved wrong. The fuel Virgin used Sunday required no equipment
modifications at all; the plane flew to 25,000 feet without
incident; and the environmental benefits seem clear, at least once the fuel is loaded onto the plane. Internal company testing suggests the biofuel, when burned, releases just half the emissions of conventional jet fuel.
Still, there are no plans to make commercial air fleets run on coconuts. In
fact, biofuel producers in general have had a tough couple of years. As food
prices soar worldwide, people are growing ever more worried that biofuel
production can drive up the prices of staple foods. Tens of thousands of
Mexicans marched in January 2006, for example, to protest the rising price
of corn, used in the U.S. to make ethanol. Virgin and partners claim that
their airplane fuel is, as Branson says, “completely environmentally and
socially sustainable.” It’s not made from staple-food crops or from crops
that required deforestation. But even coconuts and babassu have their
problems: the oil yield is just not that high. If a 747 could run on coconut oil alone, it would still take more than a dozen acres of crop to fill one plane.
Down the line, say Branson and Imperium Renewables CEO John Plaza, biofuel
producers are more interested in jatropha, a thorny plant that grows well on
non-agricultural land in Latin America and Africa. They’re also interested
in farming algae, which Branson calls “the jet fuel of the future.”
Development of those feedstocks does look promising, but commercial mass
production is still years off. And getting regulatory approval for the new
jet fuel could take several years as well. So if biofuel ever takes off in
aviation, it will likely be a decade before it has any noticeable impact on
industry emissions.
Is it worth the effort? Some critics — like Greenpeace activists who
breached Heathrow security Monday to protest the airport’s proposed third
runway — argue it makes more sense simply to fly less. Others argue there
are bigger, more realistic environmental gains to be made by building more
efficient airplanes. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, once it’s finally shipped out
to its buyers, is expected to burn 20% less fuel than similar-sized planes
— and that plane will be in commercial use in just a few months. As
priorities go in aviation sustainability, “Right now [biofuel] will be very
low,” Virgin Atlantic CEO Steve Ridgway tells TIME. But with fears that the
days of oil are numbered, it only makes sense that a business would try to
diversify its raw materials in the long term. And cutting overall industry
emissions will be no easy task if demand for flights continues to grow. “We
cannot be Luddites and turn the clock back,” Ridgway says.
Just before 12:30 at Heathrow, Virgin Atlantic’s 747 touched down in
Amsterdam, finishing off the event without a hiccup — which is more than
could be said for Branson himself. For kicks, the mogul had drunk a sample
of his firm’s coconut oil and babassu oil jet-fuel blend. “My God that was
horrible,” he told reporters afterward. “I’ve been burping ever since.” Now
that, without a doubt, is a publicity stunt.
