In Mexico, the country’s largest airline, Aeromexico, has just begun using a 25% biofuel mixture on its flights from Mexico City to San Jose, Costa Rica.
As part of the “Green Flights” project designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a Boeing 737 will now fly the route using a mixture of 75 percent conventional jet fuel and 25 percent synthetic paraffin biokerosene.
Aeromexico carried out its first transoceanic commercial flight using biofuels last month on the Mexico City-Madrid route.
The first is that on 8 June the follows the international standards certifying body ASTM International announcing its approval of its BIO SPK Fuel Standard, to be made official later in the year, of the use of hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) Jet A-1 fuel in commercial aviation. The potential financial implications are massive, as together the airline industry and the U.S. military use more than 42.25 million gallons (1.5 million barrels) of jet fuel a day.
In March 2010 Biomass Advisors released their 116-page study, Camelina Aviation Biofuels Market Opportunity and Renewable Energy Strategy Report, projecting that by 2025 one billion gallons of camelina biofuel would be produced for the aviation and biodiesel sectors, creating 25,000 new jobs and producing over $5.5 billion in new revenues and $3.5 billion in new agricultural income for U.S. and Canadian farmers. Biofuels Digest is projecting that global advanced biofuels capacity will reach 4.003 billion gallons by 2015, based on company announcements to date, with capacity reaching 718 million gallons in 2011, 1.522 billion by 2012, 2.685 billion by 2013, and 3.579 billion gallons by 2014.
Fuel and oil comprise 25 percent of civilian airlines' operating costs. When the price of jet fuel rises one cent, it increases the global cost of aviation $195 million.
The second development is that the critical mass of HRJ fuels on both civilian and military aircraft has been completed, with various military and civilian aircraft flying with HRJ additives made not only from camelina, but jatpropha, algae, babasu and coconut oil, among others. Production is set to soar from small "designer" batches of HRJ produced up to now for testing.
Quick of the block in playing to the big boys, Neste Oil will showcase its NExBTL HRJ renewable aviation fuel at the Paris Air Show later this month and airlines in the Virgin Group are collaborating to attempt to develop and share aviation biofuels at their common port of Los Angeles International airport. More airlines are sure to follow.
Another unexpected development leveling the playing field for aviation biofuels was the unexpected vote on 16 June by the U.S. Senate to repeal tax credits worth about $6 billion annually for producing ethanol, produced from U.S.-grown corn. With its 73-27 vote, the Senate passed an amendment to end the 45-cent-a-gallon subsidy the government gives oil companies for blending ethanol into gasoline and the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff it places on imported ethanol to protect the domestic market. Other biofuel producers for years have complained about the subsidies, which, contrary to popular imagery, go primarily to the oil companies, not small-time farmers.
Ethanol is the most heavily produced biofuel in the U.S., with nearly one third of U.S. corn production diverted to producing it while Brazil distills its ethanol from sugarcane, as an additive to gasoline. Other biofuel producers have complained that the subsidies both gave an unfair advantage to bioethanol producers but also soaked up much of the investment funding that might have other supported other renewables.
Between receiving formal approval for civilian airline use and the federal government preparing to end its support for U.S. ethanol welfare queens, sharp investors will be looking for potential winners on a playing field that is suddenly becoming much more level. And I haven't even mentioned Pentagon interest in biofuels - yet.
A story for another time.
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In the US, a group of seven airlines has signed letters of intent with Solena Fuels for a supply of 100% biomass-derived jet fuel to be produced in northern California.
The fuel will be produced at Solena's GreenSky California biomass-to-liquids (BtL) facility, located in northern California. At the plant, 550,000 tonnes of urban and agricultural waste will be converted into 16 million gallons a year of jet fuel by 2015. The facility will also produce 14 million gallon a year equivalents of other energy products.
'Today's announcement reinforces the ongoing steps that ATA member airlines are taking to stimulate competition in jet fuel production, contribute to the creation of green jobs, and promote energy security through economically viable alternatives that also demonstrate global and local environmental benefits,' says Nicholas Calio, the president and CEO of the industry trade organisation for the leading US airlines Air Transport Association of America (ATA).
'It is through the leadership and commitment of ATA member airlines and the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) that we are able to bring this groundbreaking alternative aviation fuels project in California to fruition,' he continues.
American Airlines and United Continental Holdings led the development of the agreement with Solena and were joined by five additional ATA member airlines – Alaska Airlines, FedEx, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and US Airways – and ATA associate member Air Canada in signing the letters of intent, as well as Frontier Airlines and Lufthansa German Airlines.
Los Angeles—Business Matchmaking, Inc. has compiled the results of multiple airline tests of oil from the little known non-edible plant Jatropha as a potential substitute for traditional jet fuel with impressive results.
German airline Lufthansa plans to begin testing the use of biofuels on one of its popular domestic flight routes from April next year. The carrier hopes to make inroads into cutting the size of its carbon footprint.
Germany's national air carrier Lufthansa said on Monday it would start test the use of biofuel to supplement kerosene on one of its major domestic flights.
The airline plans to use the dual fuel sources on its four-times-daily service between Hamburg and Frankfurt from April 2011, in a project aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
"Through the test on the route between Hamburg and Frankfurt, the effect of the biofuel on the maintenance and lifespan of the engines can be investigated," said Manfred Aigner, head of the 
German Aerospace Center's combustion technology institute.
A quarter of the fuel used by the Airbus 321 airplanes operating on the route will be composed of a synthetic mixture made from 50 percent vegetable oil.
Up to four times more costly than kerosene
Lufthansa plans to spend 6.6 million euros (8.7 million dollars) on the project, with the biofuel costing three to four times more than kerosene.
Project leader Joachim Buse told a press conference that the use of biofuel would mean a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 1,500 metric tons over the six-month test period.
While air Japan and Air New Zealand have already tested biofuels in their airplanes, Lufthansa said it would be the first carrier to use them on a regular basis.
The airline said it hoped that biofuels could make up between five and ten percent of its fuel consumption by 2020.
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saving measures have helped it save more than 110 million gallons of fuel annually and reduced its carbon emissions by 2.3 billion pounds in 2008. It aims to save 120 million gallons of fuel and reduce carbon emissions by 2.5 billion pounds in 2009.
shields for the in-flight televisions, cutting the weight by as much as half. At the same time the industry is looking to step up the use of alternative carbon-free bio-fuels, which should account for up to six per cent of the industry total by 2020.
sions by nearly 8 percent this year as they slash the number of flights they operate in line with a drop in cargo and passenger demand, and about 6 percent of the forecast carbon cut will come as a result of carriers flying fewer planes in 2009, and a further 1.8 percent reflects steps to improve energy efficiency, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. 
