Indian flight

FACT NEWS #13

India turns sky green, first biofuel flight successfully operated by SpiceJet

India's First Biofuel-Powered Flight To Be Tested Today From Dehradun

NEW DELHI: 

No-frills carrier SpiceJet will test India's first biofuel-powered flight from Dehradun to Delhi today. Instead of the regular of aviation turbine fuel, the 72-seater SpiceJet aircraft is 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.

Biofuel flights could make air travel far cleaner and more efficient, thus drastically reducing the cost of airline operations by reducing the dependency on costly aviation turbine fuel.

The biofuel for today's trial flight, developed by Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum, has been rigorously tested to ensure flight safety.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat will flag off the SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft from Dehradun's Jolly Grant airport.

The biofuel is a mix of the oil extracted from the seeds of Jatropha plant and aviation turbine fuel. The Jatropha oil for today's flight comes from seeds sown in Chhattisgarh. Five hundred farmer families in Chhattisgarh are involved in the production of the partially-refined biofuel.

SpiceJet's biofuel-driven flight comes at a time when spiralling aviation fuel price has strained the finances of domestic airlines.

While twenty five per cent of the right engine of the aircraft will have the biofuel mix, 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 the other engine.

If today's test brings success, India could join a select few countries such as USA and Australia who have had biofuel-operated commercial aircraft.