An A380 superjumbo airliner just completed a flight powered by cooking oil

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airbus-a380-saf-cooking-oil-scn/index.html

(CNN) — It's huge, it's wide, and it's potentially a lot more sustainable. The Airbus A380, a behemoth of the skies, has completed a trial flight powered on cooking oil.

The test airplane completed a three-hour flight from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse -- Airbus' French headquarters -- on 25 March. It was powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF -- predominantly made of used cooking oil and waste fats -- and operating on a single Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine.

Airbus then followed up with a second A380 flight, using the same cooking oil fuel, on March 29, flying from Toulouse to Nice. The second flight was to monitor SAF use during take-off and landing.

The fuel used was supplied by TotalEnergies, a company based in France's Normandy region. It was made from Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), which is free of both aromatics and sulfur.

*snip*

[MineralMan]

1. The scent of McDonald's french fries filled the air, no doubt.

[Hugin]

5. +1

My assumption precisely.

[uponit7771]

9. +1, McD's fries would make EVERYONE hungry. I'm sure the anti gel need to keep the oil ...

... viscosity down makes up for the fries smell.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Unfortunately, No

That would be a better smell than kerosene, for sure.
But, the fuel isn't really cooking oil.
It's methyl esters made from cooking oil. While the oil might actually work, the most likely by-product of incomplete combustion is acrolein. That's propenyl aldehyde, very closely related to formaldehyde. A bad actor. So, it's converted to a species that has only trace glyceryl functions, making acrolein output a few parts per trillion, rather that a couple percent.
During that transesterification, glycerine settling, water washing, and drying, any odor and flavor components so away.
High chain methyl esters, even if made from oil once used to cook French fries, don't smell like food.
I did quite a but of work optimizing processes to make biodiesel. I've been to the certified labs to see the live engine testing. I'd have been happy to have been smelling McDonald's fries. Alas, I did not.

[MineralMan]

19. Thanks for those details. I was cracking a little joke, I guess.

I'm not familiar with converting what might be cooking oil into jet fuel. The idea sounds promising, but I wonder about the supply of fuel from plant sources and whether there would be enough to make it an economical thing. I guess we'll learn over time.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. I Knew That

I was trying to play along a bit, while still helping to get the science right.
Your concern about the abundance of supply is warranted.
And kerosene is cheap! The bio part of biodiesel is nearly the price of diesel itself.
More than likely, the oil derivatives would be a blend of natural and petro like we have ethanol in our gasoline.
Makes part of the fuel supply renewable for the long term, and a hedge for crude volatility.
Back to the joke. If you were to go to the places that recover those used fryer oils, you would smell McDonald's all day.

[MineralMan]

22. OK. And yours was very good information.

I haven't looked up that technology, myself, so I didn't know what processes were involved.

Clearly it is not folks with diesel pickups and tractors burning biodiesel. That's a different thing altogether, apparently.

[lame54]

2. Is that used cooking oil?...

We can soon fill ip at McDonalds

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Not Really

See my reply to MineralMan. It's derived from virgin and recycled cooking oils, but using actual cooking oil is fraught with issues.

[Iwasthere]

3. I drove my Ford Excursion for 8 years on used cooking oil

All over the Western States, we'd fill up at Mom and Pop cafes along the way. Loved my grease rig. It ran better on oils than diesel. Had to sell it when we moved to Hawaii, a sad day

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Glad I Wasn't Following You

A predominant by-product of burning raw vegetable oil is acrolein. That's a low chain, unsaturated aldehyde, with toxicity similar to formaldehyde. It's a bad actor!
The commercial biodiesel is a functional derivative of the natural oils, where the glyceryl group is reduced to parts per million. (IIRC, the upper limit for free glycerin is 200ppm & total glycerides is 1000. (Most commercial producers have average values WAY lower than those limits.)
Running on raw oil is very environmentally unfriendly.

[Xavier Breath]

4. Now when I choose onion rings at dinner

to my wife's consternation, I can just say I'm doing my part for both the planet and the aviation industry

[hunter]

6. Trouble is that agriculture is a dirty business that's very bad for the natural environment.

This is not "green" in any way. Vegetable oil powered jets won't save the world.

I have similar objections to ethanol fuels. Fields of corn or sugar cane are some of the most desolate places on earth; they are toxic industrial wastelands covering many square miles of land.

[Hugin]

7. Great... Now the airlines will have fast food sponsors.

I can hear it now.

"Welcome to Wendy's Southwest flight 2257. Thanks for having fries with that fly."


On edit: or more likely... "Muuurph... mmmermer... Mulrph... TWENTY-TWO FIFTY-SEVEN mulaph... murf... mermel..."

[uponit7771]

8. WHOA !! That's a big deal !!

[MagickMuffin]

10. Hemp oil would be so much better

Hemp is better for the environment and so much more.

[MissMillie]

11. I like this story (n/t)

.

[Amishman]

12. I wonder how this impacts maintenance and longevity

I know using cooking oil as a diesel substitute makes the engine's fuel system prone to fouling and buildup

[Iwasthere]

14. I ran wvo for 8 years in my 7.3 liter powerstroke

The engine and injectors never had issues at all. Strong compression the day I sold it. The trick is to have efficient fuel filters and change them often. The wvo burns the same if heated to the right temp (180 to 185)

[Amishman]

17. That makes sense

the anecdotes I remember reading must have been from people who did not keep up on their filters.

[Historic NY]

13. Holy fried foot Batman!!

[NickB79]

18. This is NOT sustainable fuel in any sense of the word

Palm oil used for cooking oil is the reason millions of acres of rainforest have been cleared, and species like orangutans are endangered.

https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2021/04/22/doubts-cast-over-sources-of-sustainable-aviation-fuel-saf/

Ultimately, the only way to significantly reduce the environmental impact of aviation is to fly less. But no one wants to hear that.