Lufthansa aims to fly on biofuel mix by 2020

Deutsche Lufthansa plans to fly on jet fuel mixed with 10% biofuel by 2020.

The commitment to use biofuel is part of an environmental strategy released by the German airline yesterday. The strategy also aims to reduce the airline's carbon emissions per flown kilometre by 25% in 2020 as compared to the emission level in 2006.

The biofuel used will be drawn from non-food sources such as algae, according to Lufthansa's spokesperson Peter Schneckenleitner. Lufthansa is the third commercial airline after Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand planning to switch to biofuels.

Air New Zealand plans to use biofuel to meet 10% of its fuel needs within the next five years. The Auckland-based airline expects to test fly a Boeing 747-400 Rolls-Royce powered plane on a jatropha-based biodiesel in Q4 2008, subject to final regulatory approvals and fuel testing by the engine manufacturer.

Last year, Virgin Atlantic indicated plans to operate commercially on biofuel-powered aircraft within five years. Virgin is working with Boeing and GE Aviation to test fly plans a jet fuel mix that will include biofuel from sustainable sources.

Neste to build biodiesel plant in Netherlands

Neste Oil's Porvoo refinery is one of the most sophisticated and efficient refineries in Europe, and focuses on the production of high quality, low-emission traffic fuels

Finland's Neste Oil has announced it will build a biodiesel plant, its fourth such plant investment so far, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam to meet the growing demand for biofuels.

The plant will cost about €670 million and will have an annual capacity of 800,000 tonnes. Construction will begin immediately and is due for completion in 2011.

Neste, which aims to become the world's leading producer of renewable diesel fuel, already has one 170,000 tonnes per year plant producing its proprietary biodiesel NExBTL operating in Porvoo, southern Finland, and it is building a second similar one next to it, due to be ready next year.

In November, Neste announced a €550 million investment to build an 800,000 tonne a year biodiesel plant in Singapore and it has said it was considering other plants.

The Finnish refiner said it would use the same partners for the Netherlands project as in Singapore and that Technip's Italian unit would be the main contractor. Air Liquide will supply the hydrogen required for the process.

'Rotterdam is Europe's largest centre of petroleum products and chemicals production, and offers a wide range of dedicated services, as well as port facilities - all of which makes Rotterdam an ideal location for a NExBTL plant,' Neste's CEO Risto Rinne said in a statement.

NExBTL is one of the strategic cornerstones for Neste, which says the technology outperforms both existing biodiesel (FAME) products and crude oil-delivered diesel products available.

The company has said producers of the first-generation FAME biodiesel have been suffering from high and volatile feedstock prices, overcapacity and quality problems but that demand for Neste's NExBTL has remained strong.

Neste's technology can use various raw materials, and Neste said its ongoing R&D programme to come up with new renewable raw materials targets totally non-food raw material use at Neste's biodiesel plants by 2020