BA / Rolls Royce work on alternative fuels
11.07.08
British Airways and Rolls-Royce have launched an in-depth study to look at the possibility of alternative fuels for the aviation industry. The test will try to identify practical alternatives to the current industry-standard fuel kerosene, with the potential of making planes ‘greener’.
The initiative comes as the industry faces escalating fuel costs and growing pressure to curb emission levels including its inclusion within the European Union's emissions trading scheme. The two companies will initiate a joint tender process, inviting suppliers to offer alternative fuel samples for testing on a Rolls-Royce RB211 engine from a British Airways Boeing 747.
They will then draw up a shortlist of up to four to test. Suppliers which reach the short list will have to provide 60,000 litres of fuel and will have to demonstrate what Rolls-Royce described as their fuels' ‘sustainability, suitability and industrial capacity’.
Rolls-Royce director of research and technology, Ric Parker, said: ‘It is critical that the fuel can not only do the job required of it, but can also offer a CO2 benefit and be produced without a detrimental impact to food, land or water. There must also be clear evidence of the potential for mass production and global distribution of an alternative fuel to support the world's aviation industry.’
Jonathon Counsell, head of environment at BA, said: ‘Should the tests we are undertaking with Rolls-Royce be successful, the potential for bringing us closer to a greener fuel alternative that will help the aviation industry reduce its carbon footprint is enormous.’
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