this is the world's largest and most
powerful jet engine the General Electric
91 15b it's the width of a 737
you could fit six seats in an aisle
inside of it there are two on this
Boeing triple7 freighter in each creates
115,000 pounds of thrust and with boeing
test pilot carrie smith we're going to
go fly across the country without using
a drop of petroleum and this is what's
going to get us there
biofuel a blend of residual animal fats
and plant oils refined into a molecule
that matches type a jet fuel 6:9 heavy
and Boeing tower runway 3 - here's
what's interesting it actually has more
energy in it per gallon than regular jet
fuel about three to four percent more
energy meaning this plane can fly that
much further on a load of fuel so the
question is does it fly any different
nope not at all
just like just like any other jet
airplane so how did we go from
generations of kerosene jet fuel to
biofuel flashback nine years ago to this
Boeing lab in Seattle any liquid going
onto an airplane had to be tested here
working on converting algae plants and
other biological mass even garbage to
wood waste
aviation biofuel was just getting
started and this is where we first
interviewed Jeanne you helping lead
Boeing's environmental strategy we're
also looking at health fights which is a
salt marsh plant we've also looked at
babassu nut and coconut oil and the fact
that you haven't even heard of some of
these should be a good thing as biofuels
can be sourced around the world locally
without competing against food or former
food like this industrial chicken frying
oil this is the first a hundred percent
biofuel flight
commercial aircraft you is on our
historic flight now director of
technology integration and the Eco
demonstrators what we did was two things
we are validating that as a use for a
hundred percent bio but we're also
looking at the certification process for
those fuels it's about twelve step
process today we're trying to reduce
that process to five which opens the
door and the Gateway to more entrance
into the biofuel application and the
price is dropping Boeing says this load
is about five dollars a gallon a few
years ago what was eight and higher and
since fuel is one of an airline's
biggest expenses it's hope biofuels can
help insulate carriers from wild price
swings associated with petroleum oil
fields will provide the airline's I have
a great hedging strategy already biofuel
blends are becoming a regular part of
aviation available at a number of
airports with more coming so you may
find yourself on a biofuel powered
flight and not even know 50 40 30
we are landing in Memphis Tennessee home
of FedEx this was earth day it's misty
and rainy but a chance to brief
employees and engineering students about
some of the environmental technologies
on this triple7 freighter also here
eleven-year-old Holly Watson the girl
our plane is named after FedEx names
planes for employees kids while you will
never fly on FedEx as a passenger the
reality is is this is one of the world's
largest airlines when you include planes
made by McDonnell Douglas which is now
part of Boeing it has more Boeing
aircraft than any other airline we are
using and testing biofuels David
Cunningham leads FedEx Express we've got
a goal of 30 by 30 in other words 30%
biofuels by 2030
we've got several firsts on this
airplane but this is a really big one
for aviation
you know we've flown a lot of biofuels
at a percentage blend but this was a
hundred percent and that's big that's a
first for commercial aviation Doug
Christensen manages the Eco demonstrator
programme but eco doesn't end with
biofuel some of the approaches some of
the new routings that they're using all
saved safety over gen was 230
those approaches to landing at an
airport a test to prove what they call
constant flight path angle descent which
could also help keep your flight on time
we all do the same flight path angle
approach it's easier on the engines
because you set the engines it's less
fuel and you could potentially get more
airplanes in the same piece of sky
because you know exactly how fast
everybody's descending 100 we are in
essence flying in the future if today's
breakthroughs become a routine part of
flight now one of the reasons why
biofuel blends are limited to 50 percent
is that engine seals and other parts are
designed for and need exposure to
paraffin a natural part of petroleum
Boeing says the biofuel on our flight
some of it here has that natural
paraffin quality built in to a biofuel
so before this plane ever flew it had
you know hundreds of hours put on one of
these engines and testing and everything
else so this may be the future right
here okay I got a scientific question
for you you flew from Memphis and back
on biofuel right there's a smell like
broccoli or french fries it smells like
it smells like jet fuel
basically jet fuel is terracing you
tried it what do you think it's no
smells I guess sounds like kerosene
guest right exactly so it's it's it's
it's synthesizing that molecule and
getting this in in getting the energy
out of it and I'll hold it up again well
maybe leave it there okay all right I
was told by the producer don't move it
so but yeah so that's that's the idea to
emulate it we have you know you know
there's green diesel we did a flight
with the percentage of green diesel a
few years ago so this is moving in this
direction at a pretty good clip because
in 2006 was kind of when all this
aviation biofuel got started and is it
has moved along pretty fast when you
think about it that's not that long ago