Aviation Biofuels: The Bumpy Road to Scale Production
by Niall O’Keeffe (FlightGlobal) Both of the major commercial airframers have joined forces with industry peers to pursue new biofuel research initiatives, reflecting an intensification of concern about future availability of alternative fuels in the quantities required by aviation.
In January, Qatar Airways revealed plans to work with Airbus and other Qatari state entities to draw up “a detailed engineering and implementation plan for economically viable and sustainable biofuel production”. At an event marking the launch of the Qatar Advanced Biofuel Platform consortium, airline chief Akbar al Baker hailed its European project partner as “more proactive than Boeing in experimenting with alternative fuels”.
Barely a week later, details of Boeing’s own Middle Eastern biofuels venture emerged. The airframer is participating in the establishment of a biofuel-focused research institute in Abu Dhabi, along with Honeywell fuel technology subsidiary UOP and two local partners: the Masdar Institute of Science & Technology and Etihad Airways.
… As to the burning issue of which feedstock is best suited as a source of aviation biofuel, there appear to be points of consensus among the stakeholders. One is that multiple feedstocks and a distributed process will be required, since aviation’s requirement is huge, and the ease with which a particular feedstock can be grown varies by region and climate. As Glover puts it: “A good feedstock for Abu Dhabi is not the same as a good feedstock for the southern USA – or China.”
Another widely shared view is that feedstocks must be of the so-called second or third generation: in other words, their production must not interfere with food or freshwater supply, unlike first-generation fuels such as those based on sugar, corn, palm oil or soya. READ MORE
