VIDEO – For the first time, a plane connects London to New York using only “green” fuel

The British airline Virgin Atlantic operated its first flight this Tuesday, November 28… without oil.

The plane, a Boeing 787, operated on 100% so-called sustainable fuels, such as used cooking oil.

The company specifies, however, that there were no passengers on board, nor any cargo loading.

Will we be able to live without oil one day? As COP28 opens this Thursday, November 30 in Dubai (led by a president, Sultan Al Jaber, also head of the national oil company of the Emirates), the question arises after the flight operated by the company Virgin Atlantic between London and New York powered entirely by so-called sustainable fuels.

Since 2022, some companies, such as Air France, boast of flying on average with the equivalent of 1% of sustainable aviation fuels – and up to 10% by 2030 – but this is the first flight “operating 100% on so-called sustainable fuels on both engines, by a commercial airline, on a long-haul route”, underlines Virgin in a press release. The company specifies, however, that this is not a commercial flight, therefore without passengers having paid for a ticket, nor any loading of freight. Another element to take into account: the engines had to be changed so that the plane could fly only on this fuel.

Used cooking oils, wood residue or algae

British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the company, said he “very proud to be on board” flying alongside the teams “who have worked together to chart the path to decarbonization of long-haul aviation”, he affirmed, specifying also, in the video at the top of this article, that “no one thought it would ever be possible for long-haul airlines to be able to fly on sustainable aviation fuels”. “Today we hope to prove the skeptics wrong and prove that this is possible. And once we do that, we will turn to the fuel industry and say: ‘if you provide it, we will use it,'” he added.

The British government, which also praised this technical feat, announced last December to support “up to 1 million pounds” this project led by the airline in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and the hydrocarbon giant BP.

Produced from used cooking oils, wood residues or algae, sustainable aviation fuels (CDA) or SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuels) can be used in addition to kerosene (up to 50%) in aircraft. current. They are considered the main lever for decarbonization of the sector for the decades to come, with a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 75%, but their production remains in its infancy, due to a lack of sufficiently developed industrial sectors, and their price 4 to 8 times higher. than that of fossil kerosene. Additionally, they are used in combustion engines that continue to generate CO2, with decarbonization occurring further upstream, in the act of reusing plant materials instead of extracting hydrocarbons.

Substitutes are just a drop in the ocean of hydrocarbons.

The environmental association Stay Grounded

However, this first did not convince the environmental association “Stay Grounded” which described the operation as “facade greening”. “It is no coincidence that this flight takes place two days before the start of COP28 in Dubai,” said Stay Grounded in a press release. “While the world’s attention is focused on one flight, there are 100,000 every day using fossil fuels. Substitutes are just a drop in the ocean of hydrocarbons.”we can read. Finlay Asher, an aerospace engineer who worked for Rolls-Royce, as quoted by Stay Grounded, explains that CDA technology is a “technological impasse” because it cannot be developed on a sufficient scale to make a difference.

“The waste used as raw material for the bio-kerosene from this flight is not available in quantities large enough to have a significant impact on aviation emissions”Dr Doug Parr, scientist at Greenpeace UK, told AFP. “Additionally, CO2 from direct air capture and green hydrogen produced by electrolysis – both used to make e-kerosene – are very expensive to produce. (…) The only way “The only way to address aviation emissions in the short term is to address demand, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply utopian.”he added.

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Questioned by LCI, the French explorer, writer and director, Nicolas Vanier, wants to be more measured. “It’s great. We see everywhere that there are ideas being born,” he said in the video at the top of this article. “Now, all of this is not neutral. We need plant space, we need energy. We will also have to move towards a certain sobriety in any case. But we must rejoice every time there is like that, solutions that are made available to us (…) What is important is to use these solutions, because very often, it is not so much a question of capacity, it is above all a question of will”, he concluded.