Rolls-Royce and British Airways Launch Alternative Fuel Trial

10 July 2008

Rolls-Royce and British Airways have launched a joint test program to investigate the viability of alternative fuels for the aviation industry. The companies are initiating a joint tender process, inviting suppliers to offer alternative fuel samples for testing on a Rolls-Royce RB211 engine from a British Airways Boeing 747.

The RB211-524 is used on the Boeing 747-400. Click to enlarge.

There are more than 900 RB211-524 engines in service on the 747-400 platform with variants on the 767-300. The RB211-524 fleet has logged nearly 65 million flying hours, and almost 12.5 million flight cycles.

The tests will be carried out on an indoor engine test bed at the Rolls-Royce facility in Derby, UK. Testing the engine in the controlled environment of a Rolls-Royce test bed enables more accurate data to be gathered than would be possible on an actual flight because additional instrumentation can be used and performance and emissions will not be affected by other external factors, according to Rolls Royce.

Following the tender process, there will be a selection of up to four alternative fuels, which will undergo laboratory testing before being delivered to Rolls-Royce in 2009. Each company will be asked to supply up to 60,000 liters of their alternative fuel.

This will be followed by trials during which the engine will be powered by the alternative fuels and its performance compared to running on conventional kerosene. In each case, the engine will be operated through its full range of power settings including idle, acceleration, take off and cruise.

Testing is expected to be complete by the end of March 2009, after which the results will be analysed and reported.

The key criteria for the selection of the alternative fuels will be their suitability, sustainability and industrial capability. It is critical that the fuel can not only do the job required of it, but can also offer a CO₂ benefit and be produced without a detrimental impact to food, land or water. There must also be clear evidence of the potential for mass production and global distribution of an alternative fuel to support the world’s aviation industry.

—Ric Parker, Director of Research and Technology at Rolls-Royce

British Airways, which has improved its fuel efficiency by 28% since 1990, has targeted a further 25% improvement by 2025 compared with 2005.