Boeing Aircraft Successfully Completes First ‘Green Diesel’ Powered Test Flight

Boeing powered its ecoDemonstrator 787 flight test airplane on December 2 with a mix of 15% green diesel and 85% petroleum jet fuel in the engine, which resulted in a flawless inaugural flight.

‘Green diesel’, made from vegetable oils, waste cooking oil and animal fats, is widely available and commonly used in ground transportation, something Boeing looked long and hard at before investing in the idea of green diesel powered flights.

“Green diesel offers a tremendous opportunity to make sustainable aviation biofuel more available and more affordable for our customers,” said Julie Felgar, managing director of Environmental Strategy and Integration, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

“We will provide data from several ecoDemonstrator flights to support efforts to approve this fuel for commercial aviation and help meet our industry’s environmental goals,” Felgar said in a statement.

Green diesel reduces carbon emissions by 50 to 90% compared to fossil fuel on a lifecycle basis and could potentially supply as much as 1% of global jet fuel demand based on production capacity of 800 million gallons in the US, Europe and Asia.

Captain Mike Carriker, chief pilot for New Airplane Product , Boeing Test and Evaluation, said, “The airplane performed as designed with the green diesel blend, just as it does with conventional jet fuel.”