Royal Dutch Airlines

Biofuels Take Off

Last week, for the first time, a jumbo jet used a blend of biofuel and kerosene on a transatlantic flight. Also last week, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced a biofuel supply agreement to commence regular flights on a biofuel-petroleum blend on 200 Amsterdam-to-Paris runs starting in September. Lufthansa could beat it by a month under previously announced plans to launch a six-month test on Frankfurt-Hamburg flights.

Such regularly scheduled operations mark a big jump from the one-off biofuels flights that airlines have conducted since 2009. Aviation and biofuels sources say this indicates that biofuel-based jet fuels are ready to be scaled up. Amy Bann, director of environmental policy for Boeing's commercial airplanes division, says the KLM and Lufthansa announcements "signal to governments, fuel processors, and the financial community that the demand and market for these fuels exist."

Pressure to cap and ultimately reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is driving the developments. The European Commission is making flights within, into, and out of Europe subject to its carbon-trading scheme starting in 2012—a move that will cost the aviation industry an estimated €1.4 billion ($2 billion) next year and about €7 billion by 2020,  according to a March 2011 report by Oslo-based consultancy Thomson Reuters Point Carbon.

Environmental groups say biofuels make sense for aviation, since they are the sector's only alternative to petroleum. "You're not going to have electric airplanes," says Kate McMahon, biofuels campaign coordinator for Washington-based Friends of the Earth.

What has enabled aviation biofuels to shift to limited commercial service is the certification earlier this month of biofuels derived from animal and vegetable oils by standards body ASTM International. The provisional approval, to be finalized by August, covers aviation biofuels produced from oils via hydroprocessing—a catalytic process used in petroleum refining.

Hydroprocessed oil from camelina, a biofuels crop, powered Boeing's historic transatlantic flight last week (the flight was also the first in which all four engines of a commercial aircraft were flown on a biofuel blend). Camelina can be grown on wheat fields during periods when the fields would otherwise be left fallow, and thus shouldn't drive up food prices. And because the crop can be grown on existing fields, it can also avoid undesirable land use changes, such as the deforestation associated with palm oil cultivation in Southeast Asia.

KLM Royal Dutch Shell Airlines to Utilize Biofuel in Amsterdam ...

Amstelveen— KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has taken another important step in aviation sustainability.

In September KLM will launch more than 200 flights being operated on biokerosene between Amsterdam and Paris.

“KLM has once again shown it is stimulating the development of biokerosene”, according to managing director Camiel Eurlings .

“In November 2009 we demonstrated that it was technically possible to fly on biokerosene.

"Now, a year and a half after our first demonstration flight on Camelina, a new phase has been entered around the world, that of certification.

"Authorisation will soon be granted to operate commercial flights on biofuel.

"I am especially proud to announce that KLM will take this substantial step in September”.

The flights will be operated on biofuel made from Used Cooking Oil.

KLM is open to using different raw materials for the end product, as long as they meet a range of sustainability criteria, including substantial reductions in CO2 emissions and minimum negative impact on biodiversity and food supply.

All biofuels used by KLM also have to meet precisely the same technical specifications as traditional kerosene and must not require any adjustments to aircraft engines or infrastructure.

The fuel is produced by Dynamic Fuels and supplied by SkyNRG , the consortium launched by KLM and North Sea Group and Spring Associates in 2009.

SkyNRG is actively developing a sustainable production chain for aviation biofuels.

The sustainability of alternative kerosene depends on many factors and is assessed on a case-by-case basis.

In order to be able in future to reach the right decisions in this area, SkyNRG is advised by an independent Sustainability Board, consisting of the Dutch wing of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) , Solidaridad, and the Copernicus Institute of the University of Utrecht .

A positive recommendation from the Sustainability Board carries a lot of weight for KLM.

KLM also supports the view published in the WWF’s Energy Report which indicates that alternative fuels made from biomass are the only appropriate replacement for fossil fuels for such sectors as the airline industry.

Eurlings: “The route to 100% sustainable energy is enormously challenging. The costs of biofuels need to come down substantially and permanently.

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