Bio- Jet Fuel?

Biofuels are one of the buzz words that get thrown around whenever politicians or barstool environmentalists talk about how we can solve the issues of global warming and climate change. As defined by Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel), “Biofuel is… solid, liquid or gas fuel derived from recently dead biological material” -so it must be good for the environment- that’s the line of thinking.

Here in not the time or place to delve into the truth and/or shadows of those claims. It is enough to know that biofuel is less destructive in general to the Earth than digging up and burning fossil fuels. When we look at some of the biggest polluters, a few other buzz words come to mind: cars, industry and of course airline travel. Anyone who has done a personal calculation of their “carbon footprint” on the Internet will tell you that adding a plane flight or two sends their carbon footprint literally into the stratosphere.

The good news is that a new study from Boeing claims that biofuels perform well as jet fuels- this is good news for the airline industry as well as the biofuel industry. At a time when everyone and everything is clamoring to be “green,” from the gasoline industry with ethanol to the power industry with clean coal initiatives and carbon capture solutions, the airline industry may have found a way to “green” their image without sending their costs into the clouds.

Imperium Renewables, a company in the northwest United States that owns a 100 million gallon/ year biodiesel plant in Washington state, is putting a lot of stock, money and hope into jet fuel. The plant is not currently operating due to the state of the economy.

Like everyone else, the airline industry is looking for ways to reduce their carbon emissions and offer people a way to reduce the carbon footprint of their flight. The study reports that test biofuels performed as well or better than standard Jet A fuel that comes from petroleum. The study is based on tests done with commercial airplane engines with up to 50% Jet A/ Jet A-1 fuel and 50% biofuel. In addition, biofuels met or exceeded all necessary technical parameters for jet aviation fuel, including freezing point, flash point, fuel density and viscosity, and biofuels created no adverse effects on the engine or its parts.

Different test flights used different biofuel sources, from jathropa to algae- or camelina- based fuels. Biofuels in fact have higher energy content by mass than standard petroleum-based jet fuel, meaning that the switch could actually LOWER the per mile consumption of fuel. Now that would be amazing- for everyone. 

Boeing says that the next steps will be in cooperation with UOP, a fuel technology developer, and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. There is a growing move to gain international approval to use Bio-SPK fuel for up to 50% of Jet fuel needs. The entities are getting ready to put together a more comprehensive research report that will then be submitted tot eh ASTM International Aviation Fuel Committee by the end of 2009-

Just in time for Copenhagen. I have to give it to the Copenhagen summit- it is spurring on efforts from both industry and the U.S. government, which is pretty impressive for a summit that is looking at how to regulate and reduce, not grow, basically everything. There must be solutions and ways to make that happen that either allow industries to remain viable and competitive, and it sounds like the airline industry is making that happen.