Use of fuel made up of oil and waste fat instead of oil… First commercial airliner
The first commercial airliner to use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which does not use fossil fuels but consists of oils and other waste fats, crossed the Atlantic for the first time.
According to the Associated Press on the 28th (local time), British Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787 airliner successfully completed the first long-distance flight, departing from Heathrow Airport in London, England, and arriving at JFK Airport in New York, USA, using SAF, which has low carbon emissions.
“The world always thinks you can’t do something until you do it,” said Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who was on the plane with business and government officials, engineers and journalists.
The British Department for Transport, which provided 1 million pounds (about 1.6 billion won) to plan and execute the flight, said: “This test flight is a big step towards ‘Jet Zero’, which aims to make air travel more environmentally friendly.” He said.
Governments have been talking about decarbonizing air travel for a long time. The United States has set a goal of producing 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel per year by 2030 and enough to cover 100% of domestic commercial aviation fuel by 2050.
The UK has also set a goal to produce 10% of its aviation fuel from sustainable sources by 2030.
“This flight demonstrates that SAF can be used on existing aircraft,” said Virgin Atlantic Vice President Holly Boyd-Boland. did.
However, there are also skeptical opinions about sustainable aviation fuel. Kate Hewitt, head of policy at the British Aviation Environment Alliance, argued, “Currently, sustainable aviation fuel accounts for about 0.1% of global aviation fuel, and it is very difficult to bring it to the commercialization level.”
Meanwhile, while this is the first long-distance flight by a commercial airliner using sustainable aviation fuel, it is not the first simple flight. Two years ago, France’s Air France KLM flew from Paris, France to Montreal, Canada using a mixture of petroleum-based aviation fuel and synthetic fuel extracted from waste cooking oil.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.