Azul Airlines of Brazil to conduct demo flight using sugar-based fuel in 2012

Azul Airlines, the low-cost airline based in Brazil, will conduct a demonstration flight in 2012 to test an aviation fuel based on sugar.

The sugar-based aviation fuel was manufactured by Amyris Biotechnologies Incorporated, headquartered in Emeryville, California, the United States.

The flight by Azul Airlines will mark the conclusion of a project aimed at evaluating the technical and sustainability factors of the company’s renewable jet fuel, Amyris Biotechnologies said in a statement.

The planned test-flight using the sugar-based aviation fuel is a joint venture of Azul Airlines, Amyris Biotechnologies, the Brazil-based aircraft maker Embraer, and General Electric, which will manufacture the engine for the plane.

The first manned test-flight has been planned to be conducted with a mixture of conventional petroleum-derived jet fuel and a sugarcane derivative, the percentage of which is yet to be defined.

In a joint statement, the 4 companies involved in the experiment said the goal of the project is “to speed up the introduction of a renewable jet fuel” that could reduce emissions of greenhouse-gases considerably as well as provide “a long-term sustainable alternative to petroleum-derived jet fuel.”

David Neeleman, president of Azul Brazilian Airlines, told a news conference that the experiment with sugar-based aviation jet fuel is a “big and innovative step” being taken by the aviation industry in the fight against global warming.

According to Guilherme Freire, environmental director of Embraer, air transport accounts for almost 2% of emissions of greenhouse-gases worldwide, and this figure is likely to go up to 3% by the year 2050.

The newly developed bio-fuel has already been tested by the US Air Force Research Laboratory; the Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, Texas, the United States; the GE Aviation, and also other participants in the air transport sector.

However, the new fuel is yet to be tested on a commercial aircraft.

Claudio Loureiro, GE Aviation’s director of commercial development, said in a press release that though certain airlines have conducted tests using vegetable-based fuels, Azul Airlines will be the first carrier to make a demonstration flight using a bio-fuel derived from sugarcane.

The United States-based Continental Airlines, Claudio Loureiro added, is now working on a project, in partnership with the Boeing Company, to test yet another vegetable-based fuel. But, the particular raw material for that fuel has not been disclosed.

Amyris Biotechnologies says that research done till date has revealed that using sugarcane as a raw material for aviation fuel is economically as well as environmentally viable and sustainable. And, aircraft engines running on the so-called alternative fuels can perform as well as those driven by the conventional jet fuel derived from petroleum.

Though the certification process for the new sugar-based jet fuel will take time, Amyris Biotechnologies says it feels confident of starting producing its patented renewable fuel on an industrial scale by 2013.

The company said it hopes to use Brazil as a “platform” to produce and export sugarcane-derived fuel, and, to this end, plans to buy ethanol-processing plants soon.

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Brazil is the world’s biggest producer and exporter of sugarcane as well as sugarcane-derived ethanol. The country also has the world’s largest fleet of flex-fuel cars that run on any combination of ethanol and gasoline.