Nuts picked from Amazon rainforests helped fuel the world’s first commercial airline flight powered by renewable energy.
A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew today from London to Amsterdam with one of its fuel tanks filled with a bio-jet blend including babassu oil and coconut oil.
“Today marks a vital breakthrough for the whole airline industry,” Virgin founder Richard Branson told reporters in a hangar at Heathrow airport prior to the flight’s departure.
The biofuels blend on the Virgin flight contained 20 percent neat biofuel and 80 percent conventional jet fuel. Branson said tests had shown it was possible to fly with a 40 percent blend.
Last year, Virgin started to power some of its trains using a fuel containing 20 percent biodiesel produced mainly using British rapeseed oil blended with U.S. soybean oil and palm oil from the Far East.
via: Reuters
