A mandate that requires airlines to use biofuels would help speed large-scale adoption of renewable aviation fuels, according to a Neste Oil executive.
Airlines have made tentative steps towards using biofuels for scheduled, commercial flights. Last week saw KLM use biofuels on its first commercial flight, taking 150 passengers from Amsterdam to Paris using 50% biokerosene made from used cooking oil, supplied by Dynamic Fuels. Thomson Airways plans to fly customers on biofuels planes from Birmingham to Palma in Spain once a week, starting at the end of July.
The first flights using biofuels have been made possible because ASTM International, the US standards-setting body, at the start of July issued a standard allowing up to 50% blending of “bio-derived” jet fuel, greatly expanding the biofuels that airlines can use. Neste’s NExBTL fuel is one of the biofuel products that was waiting for the standard to be approved before it could be used on commercial flights. German airline Lufthansa has announced plans to use the fuel in test flights from this year.
At the end of June, a number of European airlines joined with biofuels producers to launch the European advanced biofuels flightpath initiative, which sets a target to produce 2 million tonnes (Mt) a year of sustainably-sourced biofuel for aviation by 2020.
The European Commission and Airbus have developed the initiative, along with airlines Lufthansa, KLM and British Airways, and biofuel producers Choren Industries, Neste Oil, Biomass Technology Group and UOP.
The plan is already encountering obstacles on the runway, however, with environmental NGOs arguing that biofuels are just ‘greenwash’ for the industry – An unfair comment at best.