South American airliner joins the race for biofuel fleet

LAN airlines completed the first biofuel flight in South America, as the one hour trip between Santiago and Concepción was completed using 100 per cent biofuels.

The flight is a significant development towards a reliance on biofuel in the region and indeed around the globe, as airlines look for ways to reduce their CO2 emissions. Environmental manager of LAN, Enrique Guzman explained in ILoveChile.cl: "The traditional aviation fuel comes from oil, and it releases CO2 when used in planes. When using biofuel, the CO2 released is almost the same as that captured by a plant during its growth, so there is no additional release of CO2 into the atmosphere."

Chilean Petrol Company, Copec fuelled the flight as part of an initiative to demonstrate the intention to increase the use of biofuels. However, the company stated that biofuels are still not a competitive alternative, as the costs are higher than using traditional fuels. Companies will continue to work on biofuel composition in order to reduce the cost of the fuel, helping to combat the greenhouse effect of the transport sector, which is thought to account for 50 per cent of all emissions.

The International Air Transport Association imposed a goal to bring the use of biofuels to at least one per cent of the flights by 2015 and five per cent by 2020. Biofuel composition can be from plants such as algae, jatropha, camelina and halophytes, or organic waste such as vegetable oils, which can be processed, burned directly or converted by chemical processes.

Posted by Lauren Steadman