Private jets leading the bio-fuel race
There is currently much aviation industry discussion about the green potential of algae-based aircraft fuel. There is little doubt that it holds the biggest potential as a long-term replacement for kerosene and the fuel is already available, having been used by Airbus parent-company EADS to carry out a test flight on a Diamond DA42 private aircraft last year.
However most industry experts agree that we are unlikely to see widespread use in aviation for a decade or more – due to prohibitive costs and insufficient investment. It will be a huge uphill struggle to produce the algae-based fuel at a competitive price to carbon-based fuel. The production cost per litre of kerosene is 30 cents, whereas for the algae-based biofuel it’s $10 per litre. So the price would have to come down by a very considerable degree to be anywhere near competitive.
Then there’s the issue of volume. The global aviation industry uses 220 billion litres of kerosene per year, with the major consumers the airlines – where of course cost competitiveness will be absolutely critical.
All of this points to an opportunity for the private jet sector. Private jets use a fraction of the fuel of an airliner (although obviously on a per seat basis the fuel burn is higher) so would need less of the biofuel to operate 100% green flights. And of course, there will be a certain sub-group of private jet customers who will have a particularly keen interest in ‘being seen to be green’ – even if this means paying a premium. Innovation is always paid for in any industry by a select group of people who can afford to be first movers – which has already been seen in green developments in the car industry.
So could the private jet sector help to lead aviation into a greener future? One exciting aircraft to look out for is the Diamond Twin Star (Diamond are working with EADS on the algae-based fuel project). The Twin Star is already the greenest way to travel by private aviation and available on the PrivateFly network.
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