Qantas to use mustard power in Dreamliner

Qantas will use an industrial type mustard seed to power its new Dreamliner between Melbourne and Los Angeles. The airline is working to use Brassica Carinata (carinata), a non-food mustard seed, which Qantas says produces high quality oil ideal for aviation biofuel, bio-jet for aircraft and bio-diesel for airport vehicles. The Los Angeles to Melbourne flight using a blend of biofuel and traditional jet fuel will run early next year. Qantas has a partnership with Agrisoma Biosciences (Agrisoma), the Canadian-based agricultural-technology company which developed the carinata<br/>seed. The two companies will work with Australian farmers to grow the country's first commercial aviation biofuel seed crop by 2020. Qantas CE Alison Webster said the historic flight and the partnership mark the first step in developing an aviation biofuel supply in Australia. "We are constantly looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions across our operations but when it comes to using renewable jet fuel, until now, there has not been a locally grown option at the scale we need to power our fleet," Webster said. The longer-term strategic goal of the partnership was to grow 400,000ha of carinata which would yield more than 200m litres of bio-jet fuel each year. Webster said this would support the development of a renewable jetfuel supply and bio-refinery in Australia to power the airline's fleet and further reduce carbon emissions across the airline's operations.<br/>