Air New Zealand has confirmed that one of its Boeing 747-400 jets has successfully completed a test flight where one of the aircraft’s Rolls Royce RB211 engines was powered by a mixture of Jet A1 fuel and a bio fuel.

The test flight took place over the ocean to the north east of the country’s largest city, Auckland. It marks the first test flight of its kind in commercial aviation and an important breakthrough in finding an alternative to conventional aviation fuel.

A plant called Jatropha Curcus was the bio source for the test fuel. The seeds of Jatropha Curcus produce an oil that can be converted into fuel. Jatropha can be grown in extremely dry and arid conditions, meaning that it can be grown in regions that might not be otherwise be productively used.

The test flight was a joint venture between Air New Zealand, Rolls Royce and Honeywell.

The three analysis criteria set by the group for successful alternative fuels are that they must be socially, technically and commercially acceptable. Any tested fuels that do not satisfy these criteria will be discounted.

Terasol Energy and UOP independently produced and certified that the bio fuel used on the test flight met all of the group’s sustainability requirements.

Bio fuels have been criticised because of the amount of farmland required to cultivate the plants that produce the fuel, at the expense of food crops.

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