KLM to fly using used Cooking Oil

KLM to fly using used Cooking Oil

Dutch airline KLM has announced that it will run more than 200 flights biofuel-powered flights by the end of this year.

The airline hopes to start flights between Amsterdam and Paris partially fuelled by biofuel as early as September 2011, once it has received approval from airline regulators. The aircraft will be powered by a concoction of used cooking oil mixed with Kerosene.

KLM began test flights using biofuels in 2009. The biokerosene used on the Amsterdam-Paris route has the same technical specifications as traditional kerosene and has not required any adjustments to the aircraft engines or infrastructure.

The company needs to demonstrate that no modification is needed to normal engines, which currently run using Kerosene, when using biofuel.

The testing of biofuel has been a long process – in 2008 Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic became the first commercial airline to fly one of its aircraft successfully using part biofuel and part Kerosene.

Other airlines, including Germany’s Lufthansa, have experimented using Jatropha and Camelina. Earlier this year, the airline was forced to postpone plans to become the first airline to operate daily flights partly fuelled by biofuel, as the certification didn’t come through in time.

KLM’s September flights are part of an ongoing search to find the right biofuel formula.