A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane flying from London to New York powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will take off on Tuesday, as the aviation world looks to showcase the potential of low-carbon options to secure its future.
As the world decarbonizes, airlines are turning to fuel made from waste to reduce their emissions by up to 70%, allowing them to continue operating before air travel powered by electricity and hydrogen becomes a reality in the coming decades.
The flight operated by a Virgin Boeing 787 powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines will be the first time a commercial airline has conducted a long-haul flight with 100% SAF.
This follows the successful transatlantic crossing made 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 British Transport Minister Mark Harper will be on board the flight scheduled to depart London Heathrow at 1130 GMT and arrive at the International Airport. John F. Kennedy from New York at 1440 EST.
There will be no paying passengers on board or cargo on what Virgin has called Flight 100, which arrives days before the start of COP28 climate talks in Dubai on Thursday.
A Virgin Airways plane taxis across the runway as a QantasLink Dash 8-400 series aircraft takes off at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport on November 3, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
SAF is 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 were granted permission to fly using only SAF.
Aviation is estimated to account for between 2% and 3% of global carbon emissions. SAF is key to reducing those emissions, but it is expensive and represents less than 0.1% of the total jet fuel used today.
The fuel used to power Tuesday’s flight is made primarily 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% SAF by 2030, and the industry’s goal of “net zero” emissions by 2050 depends on that proportion increase to 65%. .
However, the 2030 target appears challenging given the small volumes of SAF and its high cost, currently 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 SAF availability by 2025.
Environmental advocacy group Stay Grounded called the flight “a greenwashing distraction.”
“(Fuel substitutes) are nowhere near scalable in the timeframe needed to avoid climate collapse. What is urgently needed is to reduce the burning of fossil fuels for airplanes, which means reducing flights whenever possible,” said Magdalena Heuwieser, a representative of the network.
The aviation industry hopes the Virgin Atlantic flight will highlight to governments the need to provide financial support to make SAF more available.
Virgin said the flight’s engines would be drained of SAF and tested before being run again on regular fuel.
Reporting by Sarah Young and Joanna Plucinska Editing by Tomasz Janowski
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Source: vtt.edu.vn