Airlines Win Approval to Use Biofuels on Commercial Flights

Airlines won final approval from a U.S.-based technical-standards group to power their planes with a blend made from traditional kerosene and biofuels derived from inedible plants and organic waste.

The decisionl allows airlines to fly passenger jets using derivatives of up to 50 percent biofuel made from feedstocks such as algae and woodchips. It will help carriers that account for 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions reduce pollution blamed for damaging the Earth’s atmosphere.

Airlines already have conducted test flights using the fuel. Air France-KLM Group on June 29 operated the world’s first commercial flight using a blend including cooking oil. It’s planning 200 similar test flights from Amsterdam to Paris starting September. Boeing did a trans-Atlantic flight with fuel from the camelina plant.

Airbus estimates that fuel from plant-derived sources may account for 30 percent of airlines’ consumption by 2030.

Airbus and Boeing, which together manufacture about 80 percent of the world’s passenger planes, are planning to set up biofuel production chains across the world.

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