Boeing Aircraft ecoDemonstrator 787 Completed First Flight Using Green Diesel
Boeing Aircraft ecoDemonstrator 787 Completed First Flight Using Green Diesel
For the first time in the world,a Boeing aircraft has completed the world’s first flight using green diesel. This sustainable biofuel is composed of vegetable oils, waste cooking oil as well as animal fats.
EcoDemonstrator 787 Flies Sky High
A Boeing aircraft has completed the first flight using green diesel which is made from waste cooking oil, animal fats and vegetable oils. The company powered its flight test airplane ecoDemonstrator recently with a blend of 15% green diesel and 85% petroleum jet fuel in the left engine. “Green diesel offers a tremendous opportunity to make sustainable aviation biofuel more available and more affordable for our customers,” Julie Felgar, MD Environmental Strategy and Integration, Boeing Commercial Airplanes was quoted as having said.
“We will provide data from several ecoDemonstrator flights to support efforts to approve this fuel for commercial aviation and help meet our industry’s environmental goals,” she also added.
Sustainable green diesel has been made widely available and used for ground transportation. Boeing has found that this fuel has the same chemical properties as HEFA or hydro-processed esters and fatty acids aviation biofuel approved in the year 2011.
Green Diesel
Green diesel is chemically unique and it is a different fuel product as compared to biodiesel used in ground transportation. Production capacity of 800 million gallons or three billion litres in the US, Europe and Asia make green diesel perfect for supplying as much as 1% of the global jet fuel demand. “The airplane performed as designed with the green diesel blend, just as it does with conventional jet fuel,” Captain Mike Carriker (Chief Pilot for New Airplane Product Development) Boeing Test and Evaluation was quoted as having said.
Based on the lifecycle basis, the green diesel is produced sustainable and it reduces carbon emissions by as high as 50 to 90 percent as against fossil fuel. Finland based Neste Oil supplied green diesel for the ecoDemonstrator. The flight test was conducted in coordination with the US Federal Aviation Administration, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and EPIC Aviation. These agencies blended the fuel.
25 New Technologies
EcoDemonstrator 787 commenced flight testing of more than 25 new technologies aimed at enhancing the aviation environment performance at every stage and phase of the flight.
The Boeing ecoDemonstrator Program can accelerate the testing as well as the refinement and use of novel technologies and methods to reduce noise and enhance efficiency. The round of testing employing the use of 787 Dreamliner ZA004 will aim towards the evaluation of software and connective technologies to improve efficiency of operation. Remote sensors to reduce wiring as well as aerodynamic and light control enhancements for more fuel efficiency were also used to test how to make aviation eco-friendly. "The ecoDemonstrator is focused on technologies that can improve airlines' gate-to-gate efficiency and reduce fuel consumption, emissions and noise," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President cum CEO Ray Conner, ”Through the ecoDemonstrator Program, Boeing continues to invest in innovation that benefits the environment and our customers.”
EcoDemonstrator Programme
In collaboration with the American Airlines Next-Generation 737, the ecoDemonstrator Programme tested 15 technologies in the year 2011 for improvising fuel efficiency. Next year, the ecoDemonstrator programme will also test more technologies on a 757 in partnership with NASA and TUI travel group. ecoDemonstrator 787 technologies were created in partnership with Honeywell, Rockwell Collins, General Electric and Panasonic.
