United Airlines To Fly First Ever US Commercial Flight On Biofuels

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 7 November 2011

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07 November 2011

United Airlines Flight 1403 from Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport will become the first US commercial flight to be powered by an “advanced biofuel” when it takes off at 10:25am CT today.

The 941.5 miles flight from Houston to Chicago will take a Boeing 737-800 Eco-Skies Aircraft and its passengers from the former home city of Continental Airlines to the base of United Airlines, which took over Continental last year to form United Continental Holdings Inc.

UA Flight 1403 will be helmed by former Continental pilots, with Continental airlines having been the first ever company to launch a US-based aviation biofuels test flight nearly two years ago.

At the time of the test flight, the aviation biofuel had been made of 50 percent worth of conventional jet fuel, 47 percent worth of jatropha, and a further 3 percent of an algae-based biofuel made by Sapphire Energy.

However, the Solajet fuel blend made for UA Flight 1403 by algae-based biofuel maker Solazyme Inc. will have a different compound mixture of 60 percent petroleum-based jet fuel and 40 percent biofuel.

According to Biofuels Digest, Solafuel was created as part of a partnership between Solazyme and UOP LLC. UOP had also been involved in a collaboration with Sapphire Energy for the biofuel used in the test flight by Continental Airlines two years ago.

With the impending takeoff of Flight 1403 about to be happening soon, Solazyme will be hoping to reverse its present fortunes, which had seen its share prices on NASDAQ drop by nearly half of its value since it first became publicly listed in May of this year. The company also reported record losses in the second quarter of this year, as prospects for its industry had dimmed along with the broader economy, given its reliance on government funding.

Consequently, the algae-based company also began focusing on other niche markets such as personal care, pharmaceutical and food products, though it intends to break ground on a plant for fuel and chemical products by 2012.


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