Hello Everyone,
Is it possible to use biodiesel fuels in aviation/ aircraft? if yes, what is the percentage volume of biodiesel that is allowed to use in aircraft nowadays? if there is any article approve that please share it with me.
Thanks in Advance,
An aviation biofuel or bio-jet-fuel or bio-aviation fuel (BAF) is a biofuel used to power aircraft and is said to be a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The first test flight using blended biofuel was in 2008, and in 2011 blended fuels with 50% biofuels were allowed in commercial flights.
The following are airlines that have used biofuel in their commercial flights:
- Lufthansa. Lufthansa committed to a programme of long-term testing of biofuels, from July - December 2011.
- Scandinavian Airlines.
- KLM.
- Virgin Australia.
- Virgin Atlantic.
- Azul Airlines.
- British Airways.
Reference
Doliente, Stephen S.; et al. (10 July 2020). "Bio-aviation Fuel: A Comprehensive Review and Analysis of the Supply Chain Components". Frontiers in Energy Research. 8. doi:10.3389/fenrg.2020.00110
Regards
Bachir Achour thank you, so that means we can use biodiesel in commercial flights, isn't it?
Dear Yazan,
Absolutely!! the list of airlines that already use biofuel is indicated in my previous answer.
Regards
Yes, biofuel will have to be used in large jet aircraft. Although a small example, the shape of things to come can be seen in Embraer's Ipanema (agricultural airplane), the first ethanol powered fixed wing aircraft.
It is not completely correct to equal the biojet (aviation biofuel) to biodisel. Biodiesel is produced via catalytic transesterification of oils or fats triglycerides by low molecular weight alcohols (methanol in practice). Biodiesel is mixture of fatty acid monoalkyl esters by chemical nature. Biojet is also produced from vegetable oils (for example, Camelina Sativa), but via hydrotreating process. The latter involves decarboxilation, hydrogenation and other secondary reactions. Obtained product is the mixture of alkanes. In other words, biojet composition is more simiral to the composition of traditional petroleum-derived fuels. Similar process is also utilized to produce so-called renewable diesel (HVO, HDRD). But this is not biodiesel by definition, but different type of renewable fuel for diesel engines.
As for the biodiesel in common sense, it is principally possible to blend its small fraction with aviation kerosene. However, biodiesel unsatisfactory low-temperature properties is big obstacle, limiting both fraction of biocomponent and flight altitude. I met paper dealing with utilizatiion of blends, containing only 10 % of methyl esters on flight altitude no higher than 7000 m. Substiotion of methyl esters with esters of longer-chain alcohols (especially branched ones), characterizing by the lower clouding and pouring points, may partially solve the problem. But I do not know, wheather this was tested on practice in real flight conditions. Probably not. It is also should be remembered, that biodiesel contain about 10 % of Oxygen, which inevitabely decreses its power perfomance as fuel in comparsion with ordinary jet fuel or biojet.
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