Richard Branson oversaw a successful trial of a Virgin 747 plane partially running on biofuel blends over the weekend. However, he admitted that the fuel tested probably couldn’t offer a green solution for airlines.

Boeing and Virgin trialled the biofuel in a joint operation – the biofuel itself was derived from coconuts gown in the Philippines and babassu palm oil. Babassu palms grow wild in Brazil and the fuel derived from these trees is therefore sometimes deemed more ‘eco friendly’ than other biofuel resources.

“Today marks a biofuel breakthrough for the whole airline industry,” Branson explained. “Virgin Atlantic, and its partners, are proving that you can find an alternative to traditional jet fuel and fly a plane on new technology, such as sustainable biofuel.”

The problem is that currently, using biofuels for aviation is not sustainable. To run the majority of commercial planes on biofuels would require a massive increase in the land used to grow biofuel crops. This would potentially threaten rainforests, drive local crops away leading to increasing fuel prices, and cause havoc with local water supplies.

There are also questions over the carbon footprint of these crops – fuel crops were thought to act as a carbon sink whilst growing and this would balance the emissions produced when they are used, however the refining process for biofuels may reduce more emissions that previously thought, negating any carbon emission benefits of the ‘eco-fuel’ over more traditional jet fuels.

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