Lufthansa successfully concludes NexBTL aviation biofuel tests

13 January 2012

After a six-month practical trial of biosynthetic jet fuel, Lufthansa announced positive results of the program. Overall, 1,187 biofuel flights were operated between Hamburg and Frankfurt. The test program was concluded by an intercontinental flight from Frankfurt to Washington, DC on January 12, 2012. The aircraft, a Boeing 747-400, was fueled with some 40 tonnes of a biosynthetic fuel blend.

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“Our burnFAIR project went off smoothly and to our fullest satisfaction. As expected, biofuel proved its worth in daily flight operations,” confirmed Joachim Buse, Vice President Aviation Biofuel at Lufthansa.

The biofuel was NexBTL renewable kerosene supplied by Neste Oil. NexBTL fuels are produced through hydrotreating of vegetable oils (HVO), such as palm oil. The use of the NExBTL fuel became possible in July 2011, when ASTM approved the use of HVO aviation fuels.

The program was in part driven by IATA’s aviation industry-wide goal, where airlines should reduce their net CO₂ emissions by 50% by 2050, relative to 2005 emissions. The trial was supported by a 2.5 million euro grant under the aviation research program (LuFo) by the BMWI (German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology).

Source: Lufthansa | Neste