India’s first biofuel-powered aircraft to be tested in Dehradun

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet is set to test India’s first biofuel-powered flight from Dehradun to Delhi on August 27. The 72-seater SpiceJet aircraft is reportedly powered by a blended fuel made partially from renewable resources such as agricultural residues, non-edible oils and bio-degradable fractions of industrial and municipal wastes.

There are a plethora of pros of using biofuel flights as it could make air travel far cleaner and more efficient which in turn will drastically reduce the cost of airline operations as there will be a reduction in the dependency on costly aviation turbine fuel.

#Delhi: India’s first ever biofuel flight landed at Terminal 2 IGI(Indira Gandhi Int’l Airport).75% aviation turbine fuel & 25% biofuel used in this aircraft. It took off from Dehradun. Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan,Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu&others were present on arrival pic.twitter.com/Yjr79vKQiL

— ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2018

For today’s trial flight, the biofuel to be used has been developed by Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum and has been rigorously tested to ensure flight safety.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat is deemed to flag off the SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft from Dehradun’s Jolly Grant airport.

According to reports, the biofuel to be used will combine the oil extracted from the seeds of Jatropha plant and aviation turbine fuel. The Jatropha oil for the test flight comes from seeds sown in Chhattisgarh. For the production of the partially-refined biofuel, about 500 farmer families in Chhatisgarh have been involved.

Due to the spiralling costs of aviation fuel, SpiceJet’s biofuel-driven flight has been borne in an attempt to revive the strained the finances of domestic airlines.

An expected twenty-five percent of the right engine of the aircraft is set to have the biofuel mix while the left engine will run on aviation turbine fuel. The efficiency of the engine running on biofuel is expected to be slightly higher than that of engine sans the biofuel.

India could well be on its way to join a select few countries such as the USA and Australia who have had biofuel-operated commercial aircraft if the test flight today turns out to be a success.

On 10th August, PM Modi announced the new biofuel policy and today we have successfully implemented it in the aviation sector. It’s a big achievement in aviation and clean energy sector. GST has been decreased on Biodiesel and ethanol: Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan pic.twitter.com/E8ZIKjmhMa

— ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2018

Also Read: Mumbai Airport breaks its own record, handles 1003 flights in one day.