New Zealand-Flying on Bio-fuel.

NEW ZEALAND-LANDMARK FARM FUEL TRIP.

Late last year an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 completed a successful two hour test flight with one of its four engines running on a 50-50 blend of jet fuel and biodiesel produced from oil from a plant called Jatropha curcas.

Watching the result closely was an Australian company called Jatoil, which was established with investor funds specifically to develop Jatropha commercially as a biofuel alternative to diesel and jet fuel.

Jatoil wants to test suitable strains of the plant in Australia with an eye to large-scale commercial production, but at present Australian quarantine authorities regard Jatropha as a noxious weed, which means viable seed cannot be imported.

Jatoil is promoting research into the plant in Vietnam as part of a plan to achieve several commercial-scale 25,000 hectare plantations in the next few years, but hopes to persuade Biosecurity Australia to allow seed to be imported for trials in Australia.

According to chief executive officer, Phil Hodgson, a big advantage of Jatropha is that it can be grown in marginal sub-tropical and tropical areas of inland Australia, away from cropping areas where it won’t compete with land for food production.

"That gets around the food-for-fuel debate," he said