Test results from a biofuels demonstration flight earlier this year were released by Continental Airlines today (17th June). According to Continental the biofuel blend performed as well as or better than traditional jet fuel, displaying an approximately 1.1 percent increase in fuel efficiency over traditional jet fuel in different stages of the flight. The company also estimates that the overall life cycle greenhouse gas emissions relating to fuel used on the flight gave a reduction of 60% to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel.

"We are pleased with the successful results of Continental's biofuel demonstration flight," said Leah Raney, Continental's managing director of global environmental affairs. "We look forward to working with our partners as biofuels go through the certification process, and we hope to see these fuels produced in commercial quantities in the near future."

The flight took place in January 2009 in Houston, and the biofuel blend included components derived from algae and jatropha plants. The algae oil was provided by Sapphire Energy, and the jatropha oil by Terasol Energy. Because the fuel was a "drop-in" fuel, no modifications were necessary to the aircraft or engine. After inspections, the aircraft returned to regular revenue service the next day.

During the approximately 90-minute flight, Continental test pilots successfully engaged the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 equipped with CFM International CFM56-7B engines, in a number of flight maneuvers, such as mid-flight engine shutdown and re-start, and power accelerations and decelerations.

The aircraft's No. 2 engine operated with a biofuel blend consisting of 50 percent biologically-derived fuel and 50 percent traditional jet fuel. The aircraft's No. 1 engine operated on 100 percent traditional jet fuel, allowing Continental to compare performance between the biofuel blend and traditional fuel.