The British airline Virgin Atlantic on Tuesday made a transatlantic flight fully powered by the so-called ecological fuel. This is the first flight that environmental organizations describe as “greenwashing”, according to AFP.

The plane took off from Heathrow Airport in London and landed at JFK Airport in New York.

It is the first aircraft “to run on 100% sustainable fuel in both engines to be used by a commercial company on long-haul routes,” Virgin said in a statement.

However, the company claims that this is not a commercial flight, so there will be no passengers, tickets, or cargo.

British billionaire Richard Branson, the company’s founder, said he was “very proud to be on this flight with the teams “working together to pave the way for the decarbonisation of long-haul aviation”, according to Virgin Atlantic.

“Today’s historic flight (…) shows how we can both decarbonize transport and allow passengers to continue to fly when and where they want,” welcomed British Transport Secretary Mark Harper, also quoted in the statement.

Environmentally friendly aviation fuel (SAF), produced from waste oils, wood residues or algae, can be used as a paraffin supplement (up to 50%) in modern aircraft. They are seen as a major lever for the decarbonisation of the sector in the coming decades, but their production is still in its infancy and very expensive.

Also, they are used in internal combustion engines that continue to produce CO2, and decarbonization should be done better by reusing plant matter instead of extracting hydrocarbons.

The flight took place on a Boeing 787 equipped with Rolls-Royce engines that run exclusively on this fuel.

Biofuel is difficult to produce: “It’s a dead end”

In December last year, the British government announced it was providing “up to £1 million” to support the project, which the airline implemented in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing, British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and oil. and the gas giant BP.

The environmental group Stay Grounded described the operation as “greenwashing” in a statement on Monday.

“It’s no coincidence that this flight comes two days before COP28 kicks off in Dubai,” Stay Grounded said. “While the world’s attention is focused on one flight, there are 100,000 flights every day that use fossil fuels. Substitutes are just a drop in the ocean of hydrocarbons.”

Finlay Asher, an aerospace engineer who used to work for Rolls Royce and is quoted by Stay Grounded, explains that the ADC technology, known in English as SAF, is a “technological impasse” because it cannot be developed on a large enough scale. difference.

“The waste used as biogas feedstock from this flight is not available in large enough quantities to have a significant impact on aviation emissions,” added Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK research fellow.

“Furthermore, CO2 from direct air capture and green hydrogen from electrolysis – both used to make e-kerosene – are very expensive to produce. (…) The only effective way to solve aviation emissions in the short term is to address demand, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply wishful thinking,” he added.