SCIENCE BRIEFING
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A passenger jet powered in part by vegetable oil successfully completed a two-hour flight Tuesday to test a biofuel that could lower airplane emissions and cut costs, Air New Zealand said.
One engine of a Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel. Biofuels were once regarded as impractical for aviation because most freeze at the low temperatures encountered at cruising altitudes, but jatropha has an even lower freezing point than jet fuel.
Biofuels emit as much carbon as kerosene-based jet fuel, but jatropha -- a Mexican plant that grows in warm climates -- absorbs about half the carbon that jatropha-based fuels release.
