A Virgin Atlantic passenger jet flying from London to New York powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will take off on Tuesday, as the aviation world seeks to showcase the potential of low-carbon options to secure its future.
As the world decarbonizes, airlines rely on fuels made from waste to reduce their emissions by up to 70%, allowing them to continue operating before electric and hydrogen-powered air travel becomes a reality in the coming decades.
The flight, operated by a Virgin Boeing 787 powered by a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine, will be the first time a commercial airline has flown long-haul with 100% SAF.
It follows a successful transatlantic crossing by a Gulfstream G600 business jet using the same fuel last week.
Virgin Atlantic’s billionaire founder Richard Branson, the airline’s chief executive Shai Weiss, and Britain’s transport minister Mark Harper will all be on the flight scheduled to depart London Heathrow at 1130 GMT and arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York at 1440 EST .
There will be no paying passengers on board or cargo on what Virgin is calling Flight100, which comes days before the start of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai on Thursday.
A Virgin Airways plane travels down the runway as a QantasLink Dash 8-400 series aircraft takes off at Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney on November 3, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
SAF was already used in jet engines as part of a blend with traditional kerosene, but after successful ground tests, Virgin and its partners Rolls-Royce, Boeing, BP and others got permission to fly using only SAF.
Aviation accounts for about 2-3% of global carbon emissions. SAF is key to reducing those emissions, but it is expensive and accounts for less than 0.1% of the total global jet fuel used today.
The fuel used to power Tuesday’s flight was mostly made from used cooking oil and waste animal fat mixed with a small amount of synthetic aromatic kerosene made from corn waste, Virgin Atlantic said.
Many European airlines — including Virgin, IAG-owned British Airways and Air France — have said they want to use 10% of SAF by 2030, and the industry’s goal of “net zero” emissions by 2050 depends on that share rising to 65%.
But the 2030 target looks challenging given the small amount of SAF and its high cost, currently about three to five times more than regular jet fuel.
In October, the head of IAG warned that there was more than a 90% risk that the industry would not meet the European Union’s mandate for the availability of SAF by 2025.
Environmental advocacy group Stay Grounded called the flight a “greenwashing nuisance.”
“(Fuel substitutes) are almost impossible to scale in the time frame needed to avoid climate collapse. What is urgently needed is to reduce the burning of fossil jet fuel, which means reducing flights wherever possible,” said Magdalena Heuwieser, who represents the network.
The airline industry hopes that the Virgin Atlantic flight will highlight to the government the need for them to provide financial support to make SAF more accessible.
Virgin said the in-flight engine would be drained of SAF and tested before it returned to normal fuel operation.
Reporting by Sarah Young and Joanna Plucinska Editing by Tomasz Janowski
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
