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Fact Sheet: Alternative Fuels

  • 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


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