First transatlantic flight powered by cooking and animal fats lands in New York
A Virgin Atlantic plane powered by a blend of waste cooking oil, animal fats and other unorthodox fuels landed in New York on Tuesday, after a flight from London Heathrow that the aviation industry hailed as a milestone in its complex and controversial push to decarbonise. The journey is the first time a commercial airline has operated a long-haul flight entirely powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which emit less carbon over their lifecycle than traditional jet fuel. While the tailpipe of the Boeing 787 still released the same amount of CO₂ as normal jet fuel, net emissions from the unmodified Rolls-Royce engines run on waste products were expected to be about 70% lower than a normal trip over the north Atlantic using fossil fuel from the ground. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic’s co-founder on board the flight, said during the journey: “I was just thinking of my histories of firsts across the Atlantic and all my previous ones I’ve ended up being pulled out of the sea, whether it is ballooning or boating. So I am very glad this will be my first time . . . that will land at an airport.” With breakthrough technologies such as hydrogen or electric-powered flights years away, the industry is banking on using new fuels to reach their commitment to hit net zero by 2050, while continuing to pursue growth in the coming decades. However environmentalists and some scientists have questioned whether these alternative fuels are really sustainable at all, arguing that flying less is the only way to genuinely cut emissions. Some have also warned these publicity flights distract from the problems facing decarbonising flying, as the industry also focuses on growing in the coming decades. SAF currently represents less than 0.1% of global jet fuel volumes. Flying is responsible for about 5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the aviation industry faces a difficult journey to wean itself off the fossil fuels that power jet engines. Other sources of sustainable fuels being explored include biomass which absorbed CO₂ when it was alive, while in the longer term, the industry hopes to scale up nascent technology to create cleaner fuel by combining co2 sourced from the air with green hydrogen, using renewable electricity. All these fuels are significantly more expensive than kerosene.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-11-29/unaligned/first-transatlantic-flight-powered-by-cooking-and-animal-fats-lands-in-new-york
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First transatlantic flight powered by cooking and animal fats lands in New York
A Virgin Atlantic plane powered by a blend of waste cooking oil, animal fats and other unorthodox fuels landed in New York on Tuesday, after a flight from London Heathrow that the aviation industry hailed as a milestone in its complex and controversial push to decarbonise. The journey is the first time a commercial airline has operated a long-haul flight entirely powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which emit less carbon over their lifecycle than traditional jet fuel. While the tailpipe of the Boeing 787 still released the same amount of CO₂ as normal jet fuel, net emissions from the unmodified Rolls-Royce engines run on waste products were expected to be about 70% lower than a normal trip over the north Atlantic using fossil fuel from the ground. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic’s co-founder on board the flight, said during the journey: “I was just thinking of my histories of firsts across the Atlantic and all my previous ones I’ve ended up being pulled out of the sea, whether it is ballooning or boating. So I am very glad this will be my first time . . . that will land at an airport.” With breakthrough technologies such as hydrogen or electric-powered flights years away, the industry is banking on using new fuels to reach their commitment to hit net zero by 2050, while continuing to pursue growth in the coming decades. However environmentalists and some scientists have questioned whether these alternative fuels are really sustainable at all, arguing that flying less is the only way to genuinely cut emissions. Some have also warned these publicity flights distract from the problems facing decarbonising flying, as the industry also focuses on growing in the coming decades. SAF currently represents less than 0.1% of global jet fuel volumes. Flying is responsible for about 5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the aviation industry faces a difficult journey to wean itself off the fossil fuels that power jet engines. Other sources of sustainable fuels being explored include biomass which absorbed CO₂ when it was alive, while in the longer term, the industry hopes to scale up nascent technology to create cleaner fuel by combining co2 sourced from the air with green hydrogen, using renewable electricity. All these fuels are significantly more expensive than kerosene.<br/>
