SAA’s blended biofuel initiative gains momentum
STATE-owned airlines SAA and Mango flew their first commercial flights on Boeing 737-800s using blended biojet fuel, the culmination of a three-year trial of a nicotine-free tobacco crop called solaris.Project Solaris is a partnership between SAA, Boeing, industrial research company Sunchem, sustainable fuels specialists SkyNRG and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.The crop is grown on 60ha near Marble Hall in Limpopo, but the ultimate objective is to expand growing through Southern Africa and build up to sufficient volumes to justify building a refinery.Until then, the oil extracted from solaris seeds is being exported to AltAir Fuels in the US, where it is refined and sent back to SA as blended biojet fuel.SAA acting CEO Musa Zwane said the target was for half of its aircraft to use biojet fuel by 2023.Ian Cruickshank, SAA’s environmental specialist, said about 97% of the airline’s carbon emissions resulted from flying and only 3% from operations, so it had no alternative...
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