British Airways and Rolls-Royce have finally gone public on a programme to investigate alternative fuels that has been much rumoured for the last few months. This one's important - Rolls-Royce in particular has been scathing of any activity related to non-sustainable biofuels. Last week I reported this on our premium news service Air Transport Intelligence: Director engineering and technology, Colin Smith, told a pre-Farnborough airshow briefing today: "We are not willing to work on biofuels that are not sustainable. That has been unpopular sometimes - we refused to do one demonstration because of that.
"We need to create a biofuel from biomass that does not compete with foodstuffs. It is just barking mad to compete with foodstuffs."
He adds that the company will also only work on projects aimed at yielding a "drop-in" fuel that could be used as a direct replacement in existing engines. "And they also must not absorb water," he adds.
Smith says: "Most of the current biofuels are just plain daft from an aerospace point of view. They only work down to about -5ºC."
He notes that kerosene has numerous desirable properties and
is not easy to replace, but says: "In a few more years you will be able to
manipulate any biomass for this purpose. We will work on any biofuel if it is
sustainable."
The full text of the BA/RR announcement is below.
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