Up to this point, we have witnessed several innovations in the use and implementation of renewable and alternative fuel sources in automobiles. Now the Commercial Aviation Fuels Initiative has begun testing biodiesel as a better alternative to conventional fossil fuel.  Darrin Morgan, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' director of environmental business analysis, said Boeing's work with Virgin Atlantic is now spurring the biofuels supply chain to consider the possibilities of aviation demand for Biofuels.  Up to this point, we have witnessed several innovations in the use and implementation of renewable and alternative fuel sources in automobiles. Now the Commercial Aviation Fuels Initiative has begun testing biodiesel as a better alternative to conventional fossil fuel.  Darrin Morgan, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' director of environmental business analysis, said Boeing's work with Virgin Atlantic is now spurring the biofuels supply chain to consider the possibilities of aviation demand for Biofuels.
He predicted that aircraft manufacturers would now get "very involved" in the search for aviation biofuels.Boeing has stated that technology avail able in the last 12 months has now opened the door to more possibilities for implementation of biofuels in aircraft. Boeing's test run with Virgin Atlantic last February, showed that a 747-400 aircraft flying from London Heathrow to Amsterdam using a blend of babassu nut and coconut oils blended with kerosene jet fuel was a success. The best part about these oils is they cannot be consumed, so there is no direct competition with food like there is with using corn to make ethanol. But even these oils can’t possibly supply all of the needs of the aviation industry. Most experts state that the soluition to this issue is through the use of algae. Algae can produce an oil yield which is 15 times than  other biofuel plants. Another great advantage to using algae is that some algae actually 'Eat" greenhouse gases during the cultivation process, instead of producing it.  With the government wanting to cut aviation emissions by 30% by 2025, its still a long way from reaching that goal. Several entities in the US(engineers, government agencies, and researchers) are developing a purely biodiesel fuel that they hope to roll out by 2013.

 

Check out this video on Algae Biodiesel