This year’s ILA Air Show in Berlin gave the public its first look at flight powered fully by algae-derived biofuel. The demonstration, courtesy of EADS Innovation Works, a division of European aerospace manufacturer EADS, featured a twin-engine Diamond DA42 NG light aircraft, which used algae biofuel in one engine and conventional jet kerosene in the other.
The result: the biofuel was consumed more slowly due to its higher energy content, which resulted in fuel savings of 5 to 10 percent.
According to Dr Jean Botti, Chief Technical Officer at EADS, “This opens up the feasibility of carbon-neutral flights and we will continue to focus our research in this exciting area. Third-generation biofuels are more than just a replacement for fossil petroleum – they push the possibilities of future propulsion.”
Comparisons of gas exhaust have shown that algae-derived biofuels contain one eighth of the hydrocarbons of crude oil-derived kerosene and considerably lower levels of nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide. Furthermore, algae biofuels offer distinct advantages over other biofuel sources. For example microalgae create at least 30 times more biomass per cultivation than rapeseed and can be grown on poor quality land using non-potable water and salt water, which means its cultivation does not compete with food production.
EADS, its helicopter division Eurocopter and Argentina-based Biocombustibles del Chubut, which supplied the algae biofuel for the flights, signed a cooperative agreement to evaluate the creation of an aviation biofuel production facility in Brazil.
As reported in GreenAir Online.