Aviation biofuel research soars

Manchester Metropolitan University's biofuel research skyrockets following the longest worldwide commercial flight using sustainable fuels.

Researchers at the Centre for Aviation Transport and the Environment (CATE) are members of a European team looking to send biofuel-fuelled planes around the world, which saw last month's flight set a new record.

The team's latest flight sourced sustainable fuel extracted from used cooking oil to power a passenger Airbus A330-200 aircraft to fly from the Netherlands to the Caribbean.

Using a mixture of 20% biofuel and 80% aviation fuel, the flight is the first in a series of global passenger flights to use sustainable fuel.

The team's efforts contribute towards the EU's strive for a 1% mix of sustainable biofuel in all aviation fuel by 2015.