[ti:Passenger Jet Fueled by Cooking Fat Crosses the Atlantic]
[al:As It Is]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-11-30]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]British Businessman Richard Branson and Britain's Department of Transport organized a flight crossing the Atlantic Ocean by a jet using fuel made from animal fat.
[00:16.01]The Boeing 787 passenger airplane flew from London to New York on Tuesday using what the organizers called sustainable jet fuel.
[00:29.90]Branson founded Virgin Atlantic airlines. The airline said it used a fuel made from waste fats, including animal fat used in cooking. 
[00:43.14]The transport department spent over $1.2 million for the flight.
[00:49.31]Branson was on the plane, along with reporters, engineers and government officials as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean. There were no paying passengers.
[01:02.64]"The world will always assume something can't be done, until you do it," Branson said.
[01:09.26]The transport department called the trip "a huge step towards jet zero." "Jet zero" is a play on words. 
[01:18.90]It means the trip did not use traditional jet fuel that comes from oil.
[01:25.34]Some officials in the international air travel industry say they hope their companies can reach what is called "net zero" by 2050.
[01:37.62]"Net zero" is a proposed balance between the release of carbon gases into the atmosphere and the capture of those gases.
[01:49.30]However, organizers admit the mix of fuel used on Tuesday's trip will not be widely available anytime soon.
[02:00.20]The U.S. Department of Energy says sustainable aviation fuel is the best way to reach the "net zero" target by 2050. 
[02:11.58]The government says sustainable aviation fuel cuts the release of greenhouse gases, gases said to cause warming, by 70 percent. 
[02:25.93]However, the Department of Energy said the 2050 goal is "aspirational." That means it is unlikely to be reached.
[02:36.41]In the U.S., sustainable jet fuel production increased from about 8 million liters in 2016 to about 60 million liters in 2022. 
[02:50.22]But that is only about 0.1 percent of the fuel used by major airlines. 
[02:58.70]In 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration set a goal of producing about 15 billion liters per year.
[03:09.44]President Joe Biden's administration said in 2021 that it wanted three times that amount by 2030 and for commercial airlines to fly on 100 percent sustainable fuel by 2050.
[03:28.71]In Britain, the goal is for 10 percent of jet fuel to come from what it calls sustainable sources by 2030.
[03:39.95]Holly Boyd-Boland is an official with Virgin Atlantic. 
[03:45.13]She said Tuesday's flight shows a sustainable flight is possible, but the difficulty is in producing enough of the new fuel "so that we're flying more sustainable aviation fuel every day."
[04:02.02]Cait Hewitt is the policy director for the British non-profit group Aviation Environment Federation.
[04:10.51]The group is interested in reducing the effect of the aviation industry on the environment.
[04:17.11]She said, "the idea that this flight somehow gets us closer to guilt-free flying is a joke."
[04:26.61]She said it will be difficult to increase production of sustainable jet fuel to the point that it makes a difference.
[04:36.02]I'm Dan Friedell.