Last week, Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transport showed off the progress they have made in biofuel research with the flight of an Interjet Airbus A320.
The aircraft had a successful flight using Honeywell UOP’s green jet fuel. It traveled from Mexico City to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. The flight was to demonstrate how the conversion of an inedible plant, jatropha, can create a replacement biofuel that can be blended with traditional petroleum-derived jet fuel. The 50-50 mix would allow for a reduction of reliance on the environmentally unfriendly petroleum fuel.
The biofuel made from the Mexican-sourced plant powered one of the aircraft’s CFM56-5B4/3 engines, from CFM International.
SmartPlanet reported that the fuel “was originally developed by the U.S. Department of Defense’s research arm, DARPA for use by the American military. The idea: find a way to power transportation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid adversely impacting the agriculture industry.”
