Tobacco-based biojet fuel debuts in Africa

OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2016. Boeing and South African Airways (SAA) partnered to operate the first biofuel-powered flight in Africa last week that used a fuel blend containing 30pc renewable jet fuel and 70pc conventional jet fuel.

The partnership, known as Project Solaris, was launched in 2014 May to produce sustainable aviation fuels and earned the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) certification in 2015. The flight of the Boening 737-800 between Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, occurred on 15 July.

The biojet fuel is produced from Sunchem's nicotine-free tobacco plant, Solaris, refined by California-based AltAir Fuels and delivered by Dutch biojet-fuel supplier SkyNRG. Sunchem and SkyNRG are both RSB-certified and AltAir is in the process of attaining RSB certification.