Advanced BioFuels USA

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) …Airbus Helicopters in Japan and Japan’s leading helicopter operator Nakanihon Air (NNK) jointly performed the country’s first ever helicopter flight powered with sustainable aviation fuel. So this made us look at SAF and helicopters in a whole new way.

In today’s Digest, details on this Airbus Helicopter SAF flight, reactions from the stakeholders, other recent helicopter biofuel and SAF highlights from big names, who’s making the SAF, who’s using it, and more.

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Going back all the way to 2011, the U.S. Navy used Solazyme’s 100% algal-derived jet fuel, Solajet HRJ-5, in an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter test flight in a 50/50 blend with petroleum-derived jet fuel. Honeywell UOP was the refining partner on the jet fuel delivery, and had been working with Solazyme since 2009 on multiple contracts with the US military. At that time, Solazyme was the only company to provide the US Navy with microbially-derived advanced aviation and marine fuel.

Even Gevo got in on the action with the U.S. Army trialing Gevo’s isobutanol in a 50/50 blend in a Black Hawk helicopter in Alabama in 2013. The announcement was delayed due to a $23 million fundraising round. The isobutanol was produced at the Gevo facility in Lucerne and converted into jet fuel at the company’s facility in Silsbee, Texas.

2021 was a pretty good year for SAF in helicopters, like in June 2021, The Digest reported that in Germany, a rescue helicopter flew on SAF for the first time, achieving a new milestone in international aviation. Operated by the German non-profit organization ADAC Luftrettung, the Airbus H145 rescue helicopter has its Arriel 2E engines ceremonially refueled with biofuel at the air rescue station at Munich’s Harlaching Clinic in the presence of the ADAC Foundation’s board of directors, as well as the managing directors and top management of ADAC Luftrettung, the engine manufacturer Safran Helicopter Engines, the helicopter manufacturer Airbus Helicopters, and the energy company TotalEnergies. Together, these companies will be a driving force in the decarbonization of helicopter flight by moving away from fossil fuels. The biofuel used for the first rescue helicopter flight in Munich was produced by TotalEnergies at its refinery in Normandy from used cooking oil.

Also last year, in Connecticut, Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, approved the use of SAF for the S-92 helicopter as an alternative to petroleum-based fuels and the aircraft completed its first flight. CHC Helikopter Service of Norway, was the first to fly the S-92 helicopter using Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (HEFA-SPK) which is one of seven types of approved SAFs available today. HEFA-SPK is produced from waste and residual feedstock such as used cooking oil.

And just a few weeks ago, Finland-based Helsinki Citycopter committed to using a 38% SAF blend in first transition phase at Helsinki-Vantaa airport on its ACH130s helicopters. They are using Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

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Airbus Helicopters launched a SAF User Group dedicated to the rotary-wing community, in a bid to drive the deployment of biofuels. The company has also started using SAF for training and test flights at its French and German sites. So stay tuned for more hot helicopter SAF news in the near future.  READ MORE