Continental latest airline to complete biofuel flight

Continental airlines has this week successfully completed the first US demonstration flight of a commercial jetliner powered by a biofuel containing both algae and jatropha oil.

The 90-minute flight went better than expected, test pilot Rich Jankowski told the Houston Chronicle newspaper. "The airplane performed perfectly," he said. "There were no problems. It was textbook."

The Boeing 737-800 completed a circuit over the Gulf of Mexico, while the pilots carried out a series of tests at 38,000ft (11.6km), including a mid-flight engine shutdown.

One engine of the plane was powered by a 50-50 blend of biofuel containing algae and jatropha oil and normal aviation fuel. The algae oil was provided by Sapphire Energy, and the jatropha oil by Terasol Energy.

The aircraft's number one engine operated on 100 per cent traditional jet fuel, allowing Continental to compare performance between the biofuel blend and traditional fuel.

Continental said that it was now undertaking post-flight engine analysis to ensure that the there were no adverse effects on the aircraft.

Jennifer Holmgren, general manager of UOP Renewable Energy and Chemicals, which helped develop the biofuel, said that the successful test flight suggested that fuels made from plants could become a viable source of fuel for airlines within the next three years.

"We believe that production levels could reach hundreds of millions of gallons per year by 2012," she said.

Continental is just one of a number of operators currently racing to develop an officially certified biofuel-based aviation fuel.

Air New Zealand last week successfully completed the world's first test flight of a commercial airliner running on a jatropha-based biofuel, while last year Virgin Atlantic successfully completed a test flight using a blend of aviation fuel and babussa oil.

Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are opposed to jatropha-based biofuels, claiming they displace communities and lead to deforestation in the developing world.

But developers of next generation algae-based biofuels say that they will be able to be grown efficiently in tailor-made vats, eliminating the need to use energy crops that can eat into agricultural land used for food production.