On 2 February 2009, Japan Airlines became the first airline to conduct a demon­stration flight using a biofuel primarily refined from the energy crop Camelina (www. renewableenergyworld. com). It was also the first demo flight using a com­bination of three biofuel feedstocks, as well as the first using Pratt & Whitney engines. The results of the flight confirmed the second-generation biofuel’s operational performance capabilities and potential commercial viability. Japan Airlines is now waiting for sufficient quantities of Camelina to experiment further.

Japan Airlines used a Boeing 747-300 aircraft, carrying no passengers or payload, with a blend of 50% biofuel and 50% traditional Jet-A jet (kerosene) fuel in one ofthe aircraft’s four Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines (www. greenaironline. com).

No modifications to the aircraft or engine were required for the biofuel, which is a "drop-in” replacement for petroleum-based fuel. The biofuel component tested was a mixture of three second-generation biofuel feedstocks: Camelina (84%), Jatropha (under 16%), and algae (under 1%).

The Japan Airlines cockpit crew onboard the aircraft checked the engine’s performance during normal and non-normal flight operations, which included

quick accelerations and decelerations, and engine shutdown and restart. A ground — based preflight test was conducted the day before the flight to ensure that the engine functioned normally using the biofuel/traditional Jet-A fuel blend.

The Japan Airlines pilots were very satisfied with the test flight, stating that everything went smoothly. They did not experience any difference in the perfor­mance of the Camelina-powered engine and the other three regular kerosene engines. Today, 3 years after the test flight, Japan Airlines has not continued its venue into biokerosene, probably due to a lack of sufficient biomass supply.

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