LanzaTech

An aviation biofuel or bio-jet fuel Note:
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' or bio-aviation fuel (BAF) is a biofuel used to power aircraft and is said to be a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The International Air Transport Association (IATA) considers it a key element to reducing the carbon footprint within the environmental impact of aviation. Aviation biofuel could help decarbonize medium- and long-haul air travel generating most emissions, and could extend the life of older aircraft types by lowering their carbon footprint.

Biofuels are biomass-derived fuels, from plants or waste; depending on which type of biomass is used, they could lower emissions by 20–98% compared to conventional jet fuel.

The first test flight using blended biofuel was in 2008,
and in 2011 blended fuels with 50% biofuels were allowed in commercial flights.
In 2019, the IATA was aiming for a 2% penetration by 2025.

Aviation biofuel can be produced from plant sources such as ''Jatropha'', algae, tallows, waste oils, palm oil, Babassu, and ''Camelina'' (bio-SPK); from solid biomass using pyrolysis processed with a Fischer–Tropsch process (FT-SPK); with an alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) process from waste fermentation; or from synthetic biology through a solar reactor.
Small piston engines can be modified to burn ethanol.

Sustainable biofuels do not compete with food crops, prime agricultural land, natural forest or fresh water. They are an alternative to electrofuels. Sustainable aviation fuel is certified as being sustainable by a third-party organisation.

Environmental impact

Plants absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, meaning plant-based biofuels emit only the same amount of greenhouse gases as previously absorbed. Biofuel production, processing and transport however emit greenhouse gases, reducing the emissions savings.
Biofuels with most emission savings are those derived from photosynthetic algae (98% savings, technology not yet mature) and from non-food crops and forest residues (91–95% savings).

Jatropha oil, a non-food oil used as a biofuel, should lower emissions by 50–80% compared to Jet-A1. Jatropha, used for biodiesel, can thrive on marginal land where most plants would produce low crop yields.
A life cycle assessment by the Yale School of Forestry on jatropha, one source of potential biofuels, estimated that using it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 85% if former agro-pastoral land is used, or increase emissions by up to 60% if natural woodland is converted to use.

Palm oil cultivation is constrained by scarce land resources and its expansion to forestland causes deforestation and biodiversity loss, and direct and indirect emissions due to land-use change. Neste Corporation's renewable products include a refining residue of food-grade palm oil, the oily waste skimmed from the palm oil mill's wastewater. Other Neste sources are UCO (used cooking oil) from deep fryers and animal fats. Neste's sustainable aviation fuel is used by Air France-KL

and Lufthansa.

NASA has determined that 50% aviation biofuel mixture can cut particulate emissions caused by air traffic by 50–70%. Biofuels do not contain sulfur compounds and thus do not emit sulfur dioxide.

Timeline

The first flight using blended biofuel took place in 2008. Virgin Atlantic flew the first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel, while commercial biofuel flights were likely to use feedstocks such as algae.
By then, airlines representing more than 15% of the industry formed the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group, with support from NGOs such as Natural Resources Defense Council and The Roundtable For Sustainable Biofuels. They pledged to develop sustainable biofuels for aviation. That year, Boeing was co-chair of the Algal Biomass Organization, joined by air carriers and biofuel technology developer UOP LLC (Honeywell).

In 2009, the IATA committed to achieve carbon-neutral growth by 2020, and to halve carbon emissions by 2050.

In 2010, Boeing targeted of 1% of global aviation fuels by 2015.

By June 2011, the revised ''Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons'' (ASTM D7566) allowed commercial airlines to blend up to 50% biofuels with conventional jet fuel.
The safety and performance of jet fuel used in passenger flights is certified by ASTM International.
Biofuels were approved for commercial use after a multi-year technical review from aircraft makers, engine manufacturers and oil companies.
Since then, some airlines have experimented with using biofuels on commercial flights. As of July 2020, there have been published seven annexes to D7566, including as much types of biofuels: Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (FT-SPK, 2009), Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (HEFA-SPK, 2011), Hydroprocessed Fermented Sugars to Synthetic Isoparaffins (HFS-SIP, 2014), Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene with Aromatics (FT-SPK/A, 2015), Alcohol to Jet Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK, 2016), Catalytic Hydrothermolysis Synthesized Kerosene (CH-SK, or CHJ; 2020).

In December 2011, the FAA awarded US$7.7 million to eight companies to develop drop-in sustainable fuels, especially from alcohols, sugars, biomass, and organic matter such as pyrolysis oils, within its and programs.

From 2014, Solena planned to turn annually 500,000 tonnes of waste from the City of London that would normally go to landfill into biofuel to be used in the British Airways fleet, but filed for bankruptcy in 2015.

By 2015, cultivation of fatty acid methyl esters and alkenones from the algae, ''Isochrysis'', was under research as a possible jet biofuel feedstock.

By 2016, Thomas Brueck of Munich TU was forecasting that algaculture could provide 3–5% of jetfuel needs by 2050.

In Fall 2016, to achieve its emissions reductions goals, the ICAO planned multiple measures including the development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuels.

Dozens of companies received hundreds of millions in venture capital from 2005 to 2012 to extract fuel oil from algae, some promising competitively priced fuel by 2012 and a production of by 2012-2014.
By 2017, nor were achieved and most companies had disappeared or changed their business plans to focus on cosmetics supplements, nutraceuticals, pet food additives, animal feed, pigments and speciality oils.

In 2019, 0.1% of fuel was SAF: the International Air Transport Association (IATA) supports the adoption of Sustainable Aviation fuel, aiming in 2019 for a 2% penetration by 2025: .
By then, more than 150,000 flights have used biofuels and five airports have regular biofuel distribution: Bergen, Brisbane, Los Angeles, Oslo and Stockholm, with others offering occasional supply.

That year, Virgin Australia had fueled more than 700 flights and flown more than one million kilometers, domestic and international, using Gevo's alcohol-to-jet fuel.
Gevo is committed to going after the entire gallon of sustainable aviation fuel, potentially leading to a negative carbon footprint. Virgin Atlantic was working to regularly use fuel derived from the waste gases of steel mills, with LanzaTech.
British Airways wanted to convert household waste into jet fuel with Velocys.
United Airlines committed to of sustainable aviation fuel for 10 years from Fulcrum BioEnergy (to be compared to its fuel consumption in 2018), after its $30 million investment in 2015, and will develop up to five biofuel factories near its hubs.

From 2020, Qantas will start using a 50/50 blend of SG Preston's biofuel on its Los Angeles-Australia flights, also providing fuel derived from non-food plant oils to JetBlue Airways during 10 years. At its sites in Singapore, Rotterdam and Porvoo, Finland's Neste is expecting to improve its renewable fuel production capacity from a year by 2020, and is increasing its Singapore capacity by to reach in 2022 by investing €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion).

By 2020, International Airlines Group had invested $400 million to convert waste into sustainable aviation fuel with Velocys.

In early 2021, Boeing's CEO Dave Calhoun said drop-in sustainable aviation fuels are "the only answer between now and 2050" to reduce carbon emissions.

Production

Jet fuel is a mixture of a large number of different hydrocarbons. The range of their sizes (molecular weights or carbon numbers) is restricted by the requirements for the product, for example, freezing point or smoke point. Jet fuels are sometimes classified as kerosene or naphtha-type. Kerosene-type fuels include Jet A, Jet A-1, JP-5 and JP-8. Naphtha-type jet fuels, sometimes referred to as "wide-cut" jet fuel, include Jet B and JP-4.

"Drop-in" biofuels are biofuels that are completely interchangeable with conventional fuels. Deriving "drop-in" jet fuel from bio-based sources is ASTM approved via two routes. ASTM has also found it safe to blend in 50% SPK into regular jet fuels. Only tests have been done so far with blending in synthetic parabareffinic kerosene (SPK) in considerably higher concentrations.

; HEFA-SPK
: Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosine (HEFA-SPK) is a specific type of hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel used in aviation. this is the only mature technology. HEFA-SPK fuel is considered as leading alternative replacements for conventional jet fuel by the CAA because of its sustainability. HEFA-SPK was approved by Altair Engineering for use in 2011. HEFA-SPK is produced by the deoxygenation and hydroprocessing of the feedstock fatty acids of algae, jatropha, and camelina.

;Bio-SPK
: This route involves using oil which is extracted from plant sources such as ''Jatropha'', algae, tallows, other waste oils, babassu, and ''Camelina'' to produce bio-derived synthetic paraffinic kerosene (bio-SPK) by cracking and hydroprocessing. The growing of algae to make jet fuel is a promising but still an emerging technology. Companies working on algae jet fuel are Solazyme, Honeywell UOP, Solena, Sapphire Energy, Imperium Renewables, and Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation. Universities working on algae jet fuel are Arizona State University and Cranfield University. Major investors for algae based SPK research are Boeing, Honeywell/ UOP, Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, and General Electric.

; FT-SPK
: The second route involves processing solid biomass using pyrolysis to produce pyrolysis oil or gasification to produce a syngas which is then processed into FT SPK ( Fischer–Tropsch Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene).

; ATJ-SPK
: Research is also being done on the alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) pathway where alcohols such as ethanol or butanol are de-oxygenated and processed into jet fuels. Some companies such as LanzaTech have already managed to create ATJ-SPK from in flue gases. The ethanol is hereby produced from CO in the flue gases using microbes such as ''Clostridium autoethanogenum''. LanzaTech has successfully demonstrated its technology at Pilot scale in NZ –using Industrial waste gases from the steel industry as a feedstock for its microbial fermentation. Gevo has developed technology to retrofit existing ethanol production plants to produce isobutanol for aviation biofuel. Alcohol-to-Jet Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK) is a proven pathway to deliver a bio-based, low-carbon option to travelers.

; Future production routes
: Routes that use synthetic biology to directly create hydro-carbons are being researched. Also, the production of Fischer-Tropsch hydro-carbon fuels (i.e. FT-SPK, referred to as "solar kerosine" by the project) through the use of a solar reactor is being researched by the SUN-TO-LIQUID project.

; Piston engines
: Small piston engines can be modified to burn ethanol as a fuel. Swift Fuel, a biofuel alternative to avgas under development, was approved as a test fuel by ASTM International in December 2009, aiming for a comparably priced, environmentally friendlier and more fuel-efficient general aviation fuel.

Technical challenges

Nitrile-based rubber materials expand in the presence of aromatic compounds found in conventional petroleum fuel. Pure biofuels that aren't mixed with petroleum and don't contain paraffin-based additives may cause rubber seals and hoses to shrink. Manufacturers are starting to use synthetic rubber substitutes which are not adversely affected by biofuels, such as Viton, for seals and hoses. The United States Air Force has found harmful bacteria and fungi in their biofueled aircraft, and use pasteurization to disinfect them.

Economics

The International Energy Agency forecast SAF production should grow from 18 to 75 billion litres between 2025 and 2040, representing a share of aviation fuel getting from 5% to 19%.
By 2019, fossil jet fuel production cost was $0.3-0.6 per L given a $50–100 crude oil barrel, while aviation biofuel production cost was $0.7-1.6, needing a $110–260 crude oil barrel to break-even.

aviation biofuel is more expensive than fossil jet kerosene, considering aviation taxation and subsidies at that time.

Sustainable aviation fuels

Sustainable biofuels do not use food crops, prime agricultural land or fresh water. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is certified by a third-party such as the Roundtable For Sustainable Biofuels.

Sustainable fuels can be created with wind and solar energy without biomaterial. Carbon can be sourced from to make kerosene, etc. Hydrogen can be combusted or used in a fuel cell, although storage and transport remain challenging.

Certification

A SAF sustainability certification verifies that the fuel product has satisfied criteria focused on global environmental, social and economic " triple-bottom-line" considerations. Under many emission regulation schemes, such as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EUTS), a certified SAF product may be exempted from carbon compliance liability costs. This marginally improves the economic competitiveness of environmentally favourable SAF over traditional fossil-based jet fuel. However, in the near term commercialisation and regulatory hurdles remain to achieve price parity with traditional fuel and to enable widespread uptake.

The first reputable body to launch a sustainable biofuel certification system was the European-based Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) NGO. This organization set a global standard for fuel sustainability. Leading airlines in the aviation industry and other signatories to the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG) pledge to support RSB as the preferred provider of SAF certification. These airlines believe it important that aviation biofuels have long term environmental benefits.

Sustainability criteria

= EU RED II Recast (2018)

=
Greenhouse gas emissions from aviation sustainable fuels must be lower than those from the fossil fuels they replace: at least 50% for production facilities built prior to 5 October 2015, 60% for production facilities after that date and 65% for sustainable fuels (SAF) produced after 2021.

Raw materials cannot be sourced from land with high biodiversity or high carbon stocks (i.e. primary and protected forests, biodiversity-rich grasslands, wetlands and peatlands).

Other sustainability issues are set out in the Governance Regulation and may be covered by certification schemes on a voluntary basis.

= ICAO 'CORSIA'

=
GHG Reduction - Criterion 1: reactor fuel will generate net life cycle GHG reductions of at least 10% compared to fossil fuel.

Carbon Stock - Criterion 1: not produced from biomass obtained from land whose uses changed after 1 January 2008 from primeval forests, wetlands or peatlands, as all these lands have high carbon stocks. Criterion 2: For land use changes after 1 January 2008, (using IPCC land categories), if emissions from direct land use change (DLUC) exceed the default value of the induced land use change (ILUC), the value of the DLUC will replace the default value of the ILUC.

Global impact

As emissions trading schemes and other carbon compliance regimes emerge, certain biofuels are likely to be exempted ("zero rated") by governments from carbon compliance due to their closed-emissions-loop renewable nature, if they can prove their wider sustainability credentials. For example, in the EUTS SAFUG's proposal that only fuels certified as sustainable by the RSB or similar body would be zero rated was accepted. SAFUG was formed by a group of interested airlines in 2008 under the auspices of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and in cooperation with support from NGOs. Member airlines represent more than 15% of the industry, and signed a pledge to work towards SAF.

In addition to SAF certification, the integrity of aviation biofuel producers and their product can be assessed by means, such as Richard Branson's Carbon War Room, or the Renewable Jet Fuels initiative. The latter works with companies such as LanzaTech, SG Biofuels, AltAir, Solazyme, and Sapphire. One NGO focused on this issue is the Sustainable Sky Institute.

Certified processes

See also

* Biodiesel
* Fossil fuel phase-out
* List of emerging technologies
* Vegetable oil fuel

References

Further reading

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External links

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* {{cite news , url= https://www.flightglobal.com/flight-international-opinion/why-industry-needs-global-standards-for-sustainable-fuel-use/143384.article , title= Why industry needs global standards for sustainable fuel use , date= 22 April 2021 , author= Geoff Hunt , work= Flightglobal

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