USED COOKING OIL FUELS AIRCRAFT

No flight of fancy: This aircraft uses cooking oil as fuel
London: A British plane, carrying 232 passengers and crew members, has created aviation history by flying from Birmingham to Lanzarote using cooking oil. In fact, the Thomson Airways flight last week was the first commercial bio-fuels flight ever from a UK airport. One of the engines on the twin-engined Boeing 757 flight was operated on a 50% blend of “hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids”, produced from used cooking oil, and 50% Jet A1 fuel, the ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper reported.
The cooking oil used for the Thomson flight is collected from the kitchens of hotels and restaurants, and it then goes through a special processing treatment.
Carl Gissing, director of customer service at Thomson Airways, has said that the bio-fuel cost around five to six times the price of aviation fuel, but said the airline was prepared to “put its money where our mouth is” because it believed in sustainable bio-fuels. Gissing said: “We are proud to be leading the way with the first commercial bio-fuel flights and we hope it will make people sit up and take notice.”
He said the move was designed to make a statement which it was hoped would lead to industry and governments investing in developing fuels which would reduce carbon emissions. Thomson plans to start a full programme of bio-fuel flights in 2012 from Birmingham airport, the airways said. Dirk Konemeijer, managing director of skyNRG, which supplies the bio-fuel, said it made sense to utilise used cooking oil because it was a waste product which couldn’t be used for anything else.
It was not economically viable at present to supply the whole of the aviation industry with the fuel and that was why government support was needed.
Long-term other technology was necessary and in four years, a new fuel could come along.
However, environmental protesters stripped naked and covered themselves in red body paint to disrupt the launch. Joe Peacock, from Birmingham Friends of the Earth, said: “We can’t ignore the massive environmental and social problems caused by trying to feed our addiction to fossil fuels with plant-based alternatives.” PTI (TOI 10OCT11)