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• The industry is exploring reliable alternatives to kerosene that are sustainable and have a smaller carbon footprint
• Main requirements for sustainable alternative jet fuels:
• Can be mixed with conventional jet fuel, can use the same supply infrastructure and does not need adaptation of aircraft or engines (drop-in fuel)
• Meet the same specification as conventional jet fuel, in particular resist cold (Jet A -40˚C, Jet A-1 -47˚C) and hot temperatures (in the engine), high energy   content (min 42.8 MJ/kg)
• Meet sustainability criteria, such as lifecycle carbon reductions, no competition with fresh water requirements or food production and no deforestation
• Automotive bioethanol and biodiesel are not suitable

Sustainable Sources of Biomass

• Biofuels should be made from sustainable, non-food biomass sources such as algae, camelina, halophytes, jatropha, switch grass as well as municipal waste
• Algae are simple, photosynthetic organisms
• Can be grown with polluted or salt water
• Can produce up to 250 times more oil than 1st generation soybeans
• Camelina is an energy crop that grows in rotation with wheat and other cereal crops
• Halophytes grow on salt ground, where nothing else grows well
• Jatropha reclaims wasteland, is a natural fence for crops and grows in poor soils
• Switch grass, a hardy grass, needs little water and produces a high output of biomass 
• Transformation of municipal waste into jet fuel avoids waste going into less environmentally friendly disposal, such as landfills
• Lifecycle Green House Gas emissions can be up to typically 80% lower than traditional jet fuel emissions

Alternative Fuels in Practice

• Between 2008 and 2011, nine airlines and several manufacturers performed flight tests with various blends of up to 50% biojet. These tests demonstrated that the use of biojet from these sources as ‘drop-in’ fuels is technically sound
• No adaptation of aircraft required
• Biojet can be blended with existing fuel
• The engine powered on the biojet mix even showed an improvement in fuel efficiency in some cases
• Since the certification of hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) fuels in the summer of 2011, eleven airlines have performed commercial passenger flights with blends of up to 50% biojet from used cooking oil, jatropha, camelina and algae
• Airlines involved: KLM*, Lufthansa*, Finnair, Interjet, Aeroméxico, Iberia, Thomson Airways*, Air France, United, Air China, Alaska Airlines* (*: longer series of regular biojet flights)
• Lufthansa uses their six-month commercial flight series to study the long-term effect of biojet on engines

Certification

• IATA is working with industry partners towards agreed production standards and test and certification requirements
• In 2009 the fuel certifying body ASTM International approved a new specification enabling the use of synthetic (Fischer Tropsch) fuel blends, such as BTL (Biomass to Liquid), up to 50% in aviation (ASTM D7566)
• In the summer of 2011 this specification was extended to allow a 50% blend of HEFA, also known as hydrotreated renewable jet fuel (HRJ). Commercial passenger flights started immediately after approval of the HEFA specification
• The UK Defense Standard 91-91 recognizes alternative fuels produced to ASTM D7566.
• It is expected that by 2013, two additional alternative fuels will be added to ASTM D7566: alcohol to jet (ATJ) and synthetic kerosene containing aromatics (SKA)

Production and Impact on Net Emissions

• The EU, with its Biofuels Flightpath project, has set a target of 2 million tonnes per year of aviation biofuels in Europe in 2020, which is about 3 to 4% of total jet fuel use
• A 3% volume blend-in of sustainable 2nd generation biojet yearly worldwide would reduce aviation CO2 emissions by at least 2%, which would be a reduction of over 10 million tonnes of CO2
• This would require investment of around $10-15 billion in production and distribution facilities

Economic viability

• Consolidate aviation business case
• Attract investors
• Demonstration plants
• Synergies with automotive biofuel production
• Scale up capacity

Role of Governments

• Globally agreed sustainability standards
• Public incentives for aviation biofuel production and use
• Allow to compete on equal basis with land transport
• User-friendly biofuel accounting methods
• Support biojet R&D and demonstration plants
• De-risking of investments into biojet production plants
• Public / Private Partnerships
• Harmonized Transport & Energy policy

IATA Position on Biojet Fuel

• IATA recognizes that aircraft are long-lived assets and will be using kerosene or kerosene-like fuels for many years to come 
• It supports research, development and deployment of sustainable biojet fuels that:
• Offer net carbon reductions over their life cycle
• Do not compete with fresh water requirements and food production
• Do not cause deforestation or other negative environmental impacts such as biodiversity loss
• IATA is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB), which has developed  the most comprehensive sustainability standards for biofuels
• IATA thinks a 3 to 6% share of sustainable 2nd generation biojet is achievable by 2020

Updated December 2011