STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Strategic Management and Leadership

Strategic Management and Leadership

Japan Airlines (JAL) recently became the first airline to conduct a demonstration flight using a sustainable biofuel primarily refined from the energy crop, camelina. It was also believed to be the first demo flight using a combination of three sustainable biofuel feedstocks, as well as the first one using Pratt & Whitney engines. The results of the flight are expected to conclusively confirm the second-generation biofuel's operational performance capabilities and potential commercial viability.

The approximately one and half-hour demo flight using a JAL-owned Boeing 747-300 aircraft, carrying no passengers or payload, took off from Haneda Airport, Tokyo at 11:50 a.m. (JST). A blend of 50 per cent biofuel and 50 per cent traditional Jet-A jet (kerosene) fuel was tested in the No. 3 engine (middle right), one of the aircraft's four Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines. No modifications to the aircraft or engine were required for biofuel, which is a “drop-in” replacement for petroleum-based fuel.

The JAL cockpit crew onboard the aircraft checked the engine's performance during normal and non-normal flight operations, which included quick accelerations and decelerations, and engine shutdown and restart. A ground-based preflight test was conducted the day before the flight to ensure that the No. 3 engine functioned normally using the biofuel/traditional Jet-A fuel blend. Captain Keiji Kobayashi who piloted the aircraft said, “Everything went smoothly. There was no difference at all in the performance of the engine powered by the biofuel blend, and the other three engines containing regular jet fuel.”

Data recorded on the aircraft will now be analysed to determine if equivalent engine performance was seen from the biofuel blend compared to typical Jet-A fuel. The initial analysis of the data will take several weeks and will be conducted by team members from Boeing, JAL, and Pratt & Whitney.

The biofuel component tested was a mixture of 3 s generation biofuel feedstocks: camelina (84 per cent), jatropha (under 16 per cent), and algae (under 1 per cent). Second-generation feedstocks do not compete with natural food or water resources and do not contribute to deforestation practices. The primary benefit of using biofuels in a commercial jetliner is their ability to reduce greenhouse gases throughout their entire lifecycle, while also helping to improve the environmental performance of commercial aviation and the planes that are flying today.

JAL Group President and CEO, Haruka Nishimatsu applauded the flight saying, “Today is an extremely important day for JAL, for aviation, and for the environment. The demonstration flight brings us ever closer to finding a 'greener' alternative to traditional petroleum-based fuel. When biofuels are produced in sufficient amounts to make them commercially viable, we hope to be one of the first airlines in the world to start powering our aircraft using them.”

Boeing Japan President, Nicole Piasecki said, “We are hopeful that within the next three to five years, commercial aircraft will begin flying revenue passenger flights using sustainable next-generation biofuels. There are remaining hurdles to overcome, including gaining the support of regulators, airports, fuel distributors and ...