World’s largest Airplane flies on Fuel made from Cooking Oil
The A380 Superjumbo successfully completed a three-hour test flight.
The Airbus’s A380 operating on a single Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine successfully tested a three-hour flight powered by fuel derived from cooking oil at its headquarters in France which was followed by another test flight to analyze the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) usage during take-off and landing.
SAF is a type of fuel that is mainly processed from cooking oil and waste fats. The fuel used in the test was made of Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), which is free of both aromatics and sulfur. Airbus had already tested the efficacy of SAF in the A350 and A319 neo, two of its other models last year. As of now, Airbus aircraft can use up to 50 percent SAF mixed with traditional kerosene. The aviation giant plans on certifying its entire fleet to run on SAF by the end of this decade.
Airbus in a statement said, “Increasing the use of SAF remains a key pathway to achieving the industry’s ambition of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.” The organization claims a net carbon reduction of 53-71% should the use of SAF becomes mainstream.
It is said that the carbon neutrality with SAF is because of the carbon absorbed while its organic ingredients are being grown. The fuel is already being used by some airlines to an extent but due to its increased cost which is almost five times than that of conventional fuel, its increased usage in the near future does not look very promising unless various governments step up offering some subsidies or takes other measures to promote the green fuel.
Airbus is working on the commercial launch of the world’s first zero-emission aircraft by 2035. Last year in August, the US government had also pushed for waving off fossil fuel use in the aviation sector as their administration plans on removing all fossil fuel-based aircraft by 2050.
