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Photo Credit: Kaunokainen

TAM, South America’s largest airline, plans to hold a non-commercial demonstration flight in the second half of 2010 using a mixture of aviation bio-fuel, which will include Brazilian vegetable biomass from the jatropha plant. The aircraft will be an Airbus A320 from the TAM fleet that will be equipped with CFM56-5B engines manufactured by CFM International, a 50/50 joint venture between GE of the United States and Snecma (Safran Group) of France.

TAM’s CEO, Libano Barroso, says that the company honors its social and sustainability commitments through such an initiative. “We have put our best efforts in to using Brazilian raw materials in the production of this bio-fuel, resulting in significant economic and social gains. A source of aviation bio kerosene, the biomass is 100% Brazilian, a resulting of family agricultural projects and large farms in the hinterlands of Brazil that have been devoted to the pioneering cultivation of the jatropha plant.”

Through a joint effort with the Brazilian Association of Jatropha Producers, TAM will study the commercial scale development of sustainable jatropha production, with an eye to transforming it into aviation bio-fuel. The work carried out by ABPPM shows that there are currently 60,000 hectares of land in Brazil with jatropha plantations. Considering the natural resources and the favourable climatic conditions in Brazil, a large amount of degraded pastures could be re-covered with the plant. To be able to attain a commercial scale of output, estimates suggest that it would be necessary to expand the cultivated surface to about one million hectares, sufficient to service approximately 20% of domestic consumption and demand.

Well-to-wake Life Cycle Assessments – carried out by Michigan Technological University in conjunction with Honeywell’s UOP – show that aviation bio fuels made from jatropha and using the UOP Green Jet Fuel process, can achieve a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of between 65 and 80 percent relative to petroleum-derived jet fuel.

TAM follows the concepts and criteria established by RSB (Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels), a renowned international organization that is acknowledged for its technical and scientific prestige. RSB’s criteria include best production practices, and the use and transportation of bio-fuels with regard to social, environmental and economic responsibilities.