Nov 30 2010
Lufthansa, the national airline carrier of Germany, announced that it would start testing the utilization of biofuel instead of kerosene in one of its domestic flights. The airline carrier aspires to utilize the dual fuel sources between Frankfurt and Hamburg from April 2011. Use of biofuels is aimed at decreasing the CO2 emissions.
Lufthansa is planning to spend $8.7 million on the biofuel project. Biofuels cost three to four times more, when compared to kerosene. Joachim Buse, leader of the biofuel project, stated that biofuels would enable a decrease in CO2 emissions of 1,500 metric tons. Although Air New Zealand and Air Japan have tested the biofuels in their aircrafts, Lufthansa stated that it would be the first airline to utilize them regularly. Lufthansa added that biofuels is likely to make up between 5% and 10% of fuel consumption by 2020.
Head of the Combustion Technology Institute of the German Aerospace Center, Manfred Aigner, stated that the effect of biofuels on the lifespan and the maintenance could be examined by testing the biofuels on the route.
Source: http://www.lufthansa.com/