Beijing, Oct 30 (ANI): Air China has reportedly become the first Chinese carrier to conduct a demonstration flight powered in part by biofuel, indicating the alternative energy's possible use in future commercial flights in the country.
The Beijing-based airline company, also China's flag carrier, made the flight with a Boeing 747-400. The jumbo jet took off at 8:30 am (local time) and landed successfully at Beijing Capital International Airport at 9:30 am (local time) after the one-hour test flight, the China Daily reports.
One engine of the B747 ran on a mixture of half biofuel and half traditional jet fuel, while the other three ran solely on jet fuel. The test flight reportedly consumed over ten tons of biofuel.
During the flight, the aircraft reached an altitude of 11,000 meters.
Reports suggest that the flight crew had conducted various tests to analyse the technical aspects of using biofuel.
The paper quoted China National Petroleum Corporation's (CNPC) Deputy General Manager Shen Diancheng as saying that the alternative fuel used in this flight was derived from jatropha seeds, which contain about 40 percent oil. He added that the oil was developed and produced by CNPC after 10 years of research.
CNPC has already planted 1.2 million mu (198,000 acres) of jatropha trees in Yunnan, Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces, aiming to reach a production capacity of 60,000 tons of aviation biofuel a year by 2014, Shen added. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
