World's First Commercial Flight Powered by Biofuel by Virgin Atlantic

LONDON : Virgin Atlantic has been the first airline to carry world's first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel.

On Sunday Februaury 24, Virgin Atlantic had carried out a jumbo jet test flight from London to Amsterdam as a potentially useful experiment in which a Boeing 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank which would provide 20% of the engines power during the experiment.

The Boeing carried some pilots and technicians on this passenger less experiment flight. The biofuel is a mixture of coconut oil and babassu oil, which produces muc less CO2 than any other regular jets.

"This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected," Sir Richard Branson, the airline's president, said before the Boeing 747 flew from London's Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

This might be a breakthrough in reducing the global warming aspect and making earth a greener place to live.

There are many types of Biofuel.

Types of biofuel

Vegetable oil is used in several old diesel engines that have indirect injection systems. This oil is also used to create biodiesel, which when mixed with conventional diesel fuel is compatible for most diesel engines. Used vegetable oil is converted into biodiesel. Sometimes, water and particulates are separated from the used vegetable oil and then this is used as a fuel.

Biodiesel is a famous biofuel in Europe. Its composition is just like mineral diesel. When biodiesel is mixed with mineral diesel, the mixture can be used in any diesel engine. It is observed that in several nations, the diesel engines under warranty are converted to 100% biodiesel use. It has also been proved that most people can run their vehicles on biodiesel without any problem. A large number of vehicle manufacturers recommend the use of 15% biodiesel mixed with mineral diesel. In Europe, a 5% biodiesel blend is generally used at gas stations.

Bioalcohols are biologically produced alcohols. Common among these are ethanol and rare among these are propanol and butanol. Biobutanol can be used directly in a gasoline engine and hence is considered a direct replacement for gasoline. The butanol can be burned straight in the existing gasoline engines without any alteration to the engine or car. It is also claimed that this butanol produces more energy. Also, butanol has a less corrosive effect and is less soluble in water than ethanol.

Ethanol fuel is the most commonly used biofuel in the world and particularly in Brazil. Ethanol can be put to use in petrol engines as a substitute for gasoline. Also, it can be mixed with gasoline in any ratio. The contemporary automobile petrol engines can work on mixtures of gasoline and ethanol that have 15% bioethanol. This mixture of gasoline and ethanol has more quantity of octane. This indicates that the engine would burn hotter and more efficiently. In high altitude spots, the mixture of gasoline and ethanol is used as a winter oxidizer and thereby atmospheric pollution is decreased.

The Ethanol fuel has less British Thermal Unit energy content. Thus, to drive the same distance, more fuel is required. Also ethanol has a corrosive effect on combustion chambers, aluminum, rubber hoses and gaskets and fuel systems.

Biogas is created when organic material is anaerobically digested by anaerobes. During production, there is a solid byproduct called digestate. This can be used as a biofuel or fertilizer. Biogas consists of methane. Landfill gas is created in landfills due to natural anaerobic digestion and is a less clean form of biogas. Dried manure, charcoal and wood are examples of Solid biofuels.

The combined processes of gasification, combustion and pyrolyis gives rise to Syngas which is a biofuel. This syngas can be directly burned in internal combustion engines. Syngas can be used to create hydrogen and methanol. By using the Fischer-Tropsch process, it can be transformed to a synthetic petroleum substitute.

Some second generation biofuels that are being developed are Fischer-Tropsch diesel, bio-DME, DMF, biomethanol, biohydrogen, wood diesel, mixed alcohol and biohydrogen diesel. Algae fuel is a third generation biofuel derived from algae. This is also called as oilgae.

Information about Biofuel

Also known as agrofuel, these fuels are mainly derived from biomass or bio waste. These fuels can be used for any purposes, but the main use for which they have to be brought is in the transportation sector. Most of the vehicles require fuels which provide high power and are dense so that storage is easier. These engines require fuels that are clean and are in the liquid form.

The most important advantage of using liquid as fuel is that they can be easily pumped and can also be handled easily. This is the main reason why almost all the vehicles use liquid form of fuels for combustion purpose. For other forms of non transportation applications there are other alternative solid biomass fuel like wood. These non transportation applications can bring into use these solid biomass fuels as they can easily bear the low power density of external combustion. Wood has been brought into use since a very long period and is one of the major contributors of global warming.

Biofuels are the best way of reducing the emission of the greenhouse gases. They can also be looked upon as a way of energy security which stands as an alternative of fossil fuels that are limited in availability. Today, the use of biofuels has expanded throughout the globe. Some of the major producers and users of biogases are Asia, Europe and America. Theoretically, biofuel can be easily produced through any carbon source; making the photosynthetic plants the most commonly used material for production. Almost all types of materials derived from the plants are used for manufacturing biogas. One of the greatest problems that is being faced by the researchers in the field is how to covert the biomass energy into the liquid fuel.

There are two methods currently brought into use to solve the above problem. In the first one, sugar crops or starch are grown and through the process of fermentation, ethanol is produced. In the second method, plants are grown that naturally produce oil like jatropha and algae. These oils are heated to reduce their viscosity after which they are directly used as fuel for diesel engines. This oil can be further treated to produce biodiesel which can be used for various purposes. Most of the biofuels are derived from biomass or bio waste. Biomass can be termed as material which is derived from recently living organism. Most of the biomass is obtained from plants and animals and also include their by products. The most important feature of biomass is that they are renewable sources of energy unlike other natural resources like coal, petroleum and even nuclear fuel. Some of the agricultural products that are specially grown for the production of biofuels are switch grass, soybeans and corn in United States. Brazil produces sugar cane, Europe produces sugar beet and wheat while, China produces cassava and sorghum, south-east Asia produces miscanthus and palm oil while India produces jatropha.