Algae-fuelled jet takes flight

One US airline has just finished the first test flight of a plane powered by a 50-50 blend of normal aircraft fuel and biofuel derived from algae.┬á┬á The test took place on Wednesday in a Continental Boeing 737-800, leaving from HoustonÔÇÖs Bush Intercontinental Airport and completing a circuit over the Gulf of Mexico. Pilots carried out a series of tests at 38,000 feet during the 90-minute flight, including a mid-flight engine shutdown. "The airplane performed perfectly," test pilot Rich Jankowski told the Houston Chronicle newspaper. "There were no problems. It was textbook." ┬á The flight is the latest in a series of demonstration flights by the aviation industry, and the first by a US carrier to use an alternative fuel source, and the first in the world to use a twin-engine commercial aircraft (rather than a four-engine plane) to test a biofuel blend.┬á Continental Airlines chief executive Larry Kellner described the biofuel as a "drop-in fuel", which meant that no modification to the aircraft or its engines was required.┬á Although airlines have been continually improving the fuel efficiency of their aircraft over the past three decades, a growing number of aircraft creating more flights has led the sector's global emissions to rise drastically.┬á As a result, the aviation industry is keen to embrace the environmental benefits that biofuels can offer, and hopes to be using biofuels within five years. ┬á Algae is viewed by many as a key fuel for the future because it grows fast, does not compete with food crops for arable land, and yields up to 30 times more fuel than standard energy crops. But despite advances in the technology, biofuels derived from algae have yet to be proven as commercially competitive.┬á "The challenge will be to produce it in an efficient way in the quantities we need," said Kellner.