Australian Firm to Provide Jatropha Biofuel to Lufthansa for Testing

Australia's Jatenergy Limited energy company is to provide crude jatropha oil to Lufthansa for flight trials.

The Lufthansa tests are the world's first, long-term trial of renewable jet fuel and will be used on Lufthansa's regularly scheduled flights between Hamburg and Frankfurt.

Jatenergy is providing Lufthansa with 200 tons of crude jatropha oil at $1,000 per ton from its joint venture with PT Waterland International, which was refined into civilian aviation Jet A-1 biojet fuel by Finnish firm Neste Oil, The International Business Times reported.

Jatenergy CEO Phil Hodgson said, "We can't produce enough jatropha oil at the moment to meet demand. Apart from sales to airlines such as Lufthansa, there is also interest from power generators and traditional biodiesel producers at prices linked to vegetable oils such as palm oil. Palm oil has priced between $1,000-1,250 per ton during 2011, which is around $140-180 per barrel. Our average ex-works production costs for the oil are around $460 per ton, or $65 per barrel."

Interest in "drop in" biofuels has soared since the the standards group ASTM International recently approved the blending of up to 50 per cent of biofuel with conventional Jet A-1 fuel.

By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com