India's first biofuel-run aircraft test successful, says Spicejet

Ajay Singh-led SpiceJet today said that the test flight of India's first biofuel-run aircraft was successful. Spicejet's Bombardier Q400 aircraft took off for its test flight from Dehradun and landed in Delhi. 

Around 20 people, including officials from aviation regulator DGCA and SpiceJet, were in the test flight. The Q400 aircraft has 78 seats. 

The Q400 has been designed specially keeping in mind the carbon emissions from the aircrafts. Bombardier says the Q400 aircraft can save over 4,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year per aircraft.

The duration of the flight was around 25 minutes, according to an airline executive.

However, the aircraft did not fly completely on biojet fuel. The flight was powered with a blend of 75 per cent air turbine fuel (ATF) and 25 per cent biojet fuel, it said.

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The airline said in a statement that the advantage of using biojet fuel as compared to ATF is that it reduces carbon emissions and enhances fuel efficiency.

Made from Jatropha crop, the fuel has been developed by the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, SpiceJet said.

SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said biojet fuel is low cost and helps in significantly reducing carbon emissions. 

"It has the potential to reduce our dependence on traditional aviation fuel by up to 50 per cent on every flight and bring down fares," he said.

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The biojet fuel has been recognised by American Standard Testing Method (ASTM) and meets the specification standards of Pratt & Whitney and Bombardier for commercial application in aircraft.

According to global airlines' body IATA, aviation industry contributes to two per cent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.

IATA has also set out a target for one billion passengers to fly on aircraft using a mix of clean energy and fossil fuels by 2025, the release said.