Continental Soars on Biofuel

January 7, 2009 at 2:48 pm · Filed under airlines, travel and tagged: biofuel

By Linda Tancs

Continental took its maiden voyage using biofuel today in engine #2 on a flight to nowhere beginning and ending at the airline’s hub at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport. The fuel in this instance is a mix of algae and jatropha oil, which purportedly reduces the voyage’s carbon footprint as these elements consume carbon during their respective lifecycles. The test flight is a first for a North American carrier and also represents the first use of algae. Recently, Air New Zealand conducted its own successful test flight using jet fuel combined with jatropha oil. The oil is derived from the seeds of jatropha plants. Commonly found in southeastern Africa and Asia, the plant is capable of growing in non-arable land and therefore doesn’t compete for space with food crops. However, the New Zealand carrier did not dedicate an engine solely to the use of biofuel as Continental did. Last February, Virgin also embarked on a flight using an alternative to traditional jet fuel–in that case, coconut oil. Nice to see so many airlines thinking outside the box.

If you enjoyed this post, please share it on sites such as StumbleUpon, vote for it, or bookmark it. Thanks for your support! Travelrific® was featured as Blog of the Day on NJ.com!

Comments