NASA Confirms Biofuels Reduce Jet Engine Pollution

On March 15, 2017, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published the results of a joint study with German and Canadian agencies on the impact of biofuels on jet engine pollution, including emissions and contrail formation.  The results demonstrate that the use of a 50-50 blend of aviation fuel and fuel of hydro processed esters and fatty acids from camelina plant oil reduced particle emissions by 50-70 percent.  Since soot emissions are a major driver of contrail formation, the particle reductions observed with the use of biofuel are expected to result in a reduced concentration of ice crystals in the contrails, thus, minimizing the impact of the contrails on the environment.  NASA plans to continue to study and demonstrate the potential benefits of biofuels, particularly on their proposed supersonic X-plane.