ANA Holdings Inc., the nation's largest airline, plans to use a Euglena Co. biofuel made from algae as the supplier builds a demonstration plant in Yokohama.
ANA will use a mix of which about 10 percent will be the algae-based fuel, Kiyoshi Tonomoto, an executive vice president at the airline, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. Euglena is spending about ¥3 billion on a demonstration plant to produce about 125,000 liters of the fuel a year in Yokohama, the Tokyo-based company said.
Euglena, which has teamed up with Chevron Lummus Global LCC to build the initial plant to begin operations in 2018, aims to construct a commercial plant in the 2020s, it said in a statement.
ANA's tests will add to those by other airlines including Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. and Japan Airlines Co.
In all, more than 1,600 commercial flights have used biofuel since 2011, according to Boeing Co.
Euglena currently makes algae-based nutritional supplements on the island of Ishigaki, one of the Okinawa Prefecture's southernmost islets.