$10 Million Approved For Unleaded Avgas Evaluation

January 05, 2023

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by Russ Niles (AvWeb) Congress has approved $10 million for testing and evaluation of unleaded high octane aviation fuels and all sectors currently involved in the effort can qualify for funding. According to AOPA, President Joe Biden signed the bill that funds the executive branch for the coming year on Dec. 29. “The bill also recognizes the collaborative industry-government effort to move general aviation to a fleetwide drop-in, lead-free fuel solution no later than 2030 by including $10 million for additional unleaded fuel testing and evaluation,” AOPA said in a news release.

AOPA is one of the lead proponents of the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) initiative to find a drop-in universal replacement for 100LL that will lead to a FAA fleet authorization, and EAGLE will be in line for some of that money. But those pursuing a new fuel by way of Supplementary Type Certificate, as GAMI’s G100UL achieved last September, can also get a slice of the funding. Swift Fuels is eyeing an STC for its 100R in 2023, according to AOPA. “These funds may also be used to further advance research, development, and innovation to support both of these paths, leading to a possible update to FAA certification guidance.” READ MORE

Bill introduced in Washington state to ban 100LL (General Aviation News)

‘My kids are being poisoned’: How aviators escaped America’s war on lead (Politico)

Unleaded avgas on track to be at California airports by summer 2023 (General Aviation News)

Excerpt from Politco: Lead was removed from gasoline decades ago. So why is aviation fuel still laced with the metal — a neurotoxin tied to developmental problems in children?

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Paint can be removed. Pipes can be replaced. But (Veronica) Licon lives directly under the flight path to Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose, Calif. The small airplanes and choppers flying overhead run on leaded gasoline, dusting her home with a neurotoxin research links to lowered IQ and behavioral problems in children. There’s nothing Licon can do about that.

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Today, toddlers in East San Jose have concentrations of lead in their blood on par with children tested at the height of the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich., according to a recent study done in coordination with the California Department of Public Health. Meanwhile, aircraft in and out of the airport are flying on leaded gasoline three decades after the U.S. banned the fuel for cars.

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Efforts since then to develop unleaded, or even less heavily leaded fuel for small airplanes, have been dependent on the approval of oil and aviation experts who meet through the nonprofit standards organization ASTM International. Whether the inventor was from a maker of piston-engine airplanes or a Swedish chemist, a new formula for lead-free gasoline went first to a committee that included fuel producers like Chevron and Exxon Mobil. And the panel has repeatedly rejected proposals to create unleaded fuels for small aircraft, an investigation by POLITICO’s E&E News found.

As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration has failed over multiple administrations to achieve a policy goal to move American fliers to cleaner fuels. And major oil companies have protected their small-but-profitable market for leaded aviation gas, according to interviews with nearly a dozen former members of the fuel-standards committee and documents reviewed by E&E News.

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Private jets and commercial airlines fly on unleaded fuels. But the aviation gasoline used by tens of thousands of smaller aircraft crisscrossing U.S. airspace is the single largest source of lead in the air today, prompting the Environmental Protection Agency late last year to take a step toward outlawing the leaded fuel.

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From America and Europe to India and China, bans on leaded automobile fuel had gone into effect by the turn of the century. The final U.S. ban in 1996 was a public health success. Since then, the amount of lead in Americans’ blood has fallen more than 96 percent.

But EPA carved out an exception for the high-octane leaded gasoline made for small airplanes. The loophole for aviation gas has meant years of lead poisoning in San Jose and other communities of color near the thousands of small airports in rural pockets across the country.

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But there’s little evidence that resolving the lead issue in smaller planes has been a high priority either for the aviation industry or its regulators.

Eliminating any amount of lead emissions could bring significant public health gains at a time when piston-engine aircraft are the largest source of airborne lead in the United States, according to EPA. Public health advocates including the Physicians for Social Responsibility that have petitioned EPA to eliminate sources of lead exposure have pushed the agency to target aviation fuel.

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Today, the vast majority of Sweden’s small planes fly on unleaded gas. But Hjelmberg and the FAA had a problem. An effort to bring his fuel to the U.S. market had been turned away earlier in the decade when an ASTM standards committee pointed to efforts by U.S. companies to develop a higher-octane fuel. And it would fail again in 1999 because no U.S. oil refinery would agree to produce it, (Swedish inventor Lars) Hjelmberg said.

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The FAA and the aviation industry see ASTM approval as a critical safety check. Engine-makers, pilots, community airports and FAA officials sit on ASTM’s piston-engine aviation fuel standards subcommittee. So do representatives for the major oil companies that operate U.S. refineries. A committee requires a consensus to write a new standard and bring a fuel to market. That allows a company with a vested interest to block a competing fuel, according to former members of the panel.

“The question asked in ASTM meetings is, essentially, ‘What is in this for my company?’” said Paul Millner, a former Chevron fuel engineer who sat on the ASTM panel. ‘“And if we do need a new specification, how do I craft this thing so that if it hurts anybody, it hurts my competitor more than me.’”

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Hjelmberg’s 96-octane unleaded formula, first introduced in 1991, wasn’t the only new fuel rejected by the panel. In the same time period, a 95-octane unleaded formula from the Wichita, Kan.-based aircraft-maker Cessna also didn’t make it through the process.

Had it been approved, Cessna planned to modify much of its fleet to fly on the cleaner gas. But the company stopped work on the fuel in 2002 after being rejected by the standards committee, according to a presentation given by the project’s chief scientist years later. The scientist, Cesar Gonzalez, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Cessna.

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Producers had made multiple fuels of different octanes up until the 1980s. But falling sales late in that decade made it less profitable and prompted producers and airports to consolidate to a single option: the 100-octane fuel.

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Among other things, the study compared lead levels recorded in 2020 during coronavirus-related shutdowns — when far fewer planes were flying in and out of the airport — to samples during normal times. The results helped convince researchers that the higher lead levels were tied to aviation gas emissions, not old paint or tap water.

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In December 2021 the county decided to stop selling leaded fuel at two county-owned airports, Reid-Hillview and San Martin. Today, pilots can fuel up with a 94-octane unleaded gasoline made by a small fuel maker in West Lafayette, Ind., called SwiftFuels — the only unleaded fuel to make it through the regulatory gauntlet.

The decision led to a cascade of petitions to the FAA from airport users and national aviation and fuel groups — including API, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The groups argue the county’s refusal to sell high-octane leaded aviation gas unfairly discriminates against pilots who require the fuel to fly safely and violates the terms of grant money awarded to the county. Their complaints prompted the FAA to launch an “informal investigation” into the county last winter.

For the past year, the FAA has urged the county to sell leaded fuel until 2030, the agency’s target for having an unleaded fuel ready for sale across the country. But the county hasn’t backed down. This month, the FAA pulled back, suspending its initial investigation and agreeing to develop a “demonstration project” on ways to cut airport lead emissions.

But the agreement doesn’t cover a second complaint filed by the national pilot groups in October, raising similar safety concerns.

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The Biden administration’s push to confront environmental inequality has drawn new attention to airplane fuel. EPA took its first step toward eliminating leaded gas in October when it released a draft “endangerment finding” that detailed human exposure and the risks to children’s health.

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General Aviation Modifications Inc., or GAMI, a small aerospace company in Oklahoma, started working on a 100-octane zero-lead formula in 2009. It found the secret sauce within nine months, said George Braly, the aeronautical engineer who founded the company.

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GAMI the next year asked the FAA to certify that airplanes can fly on the fuel. Braly got his initial approval from the agency last summer — 12 years later.

The FAA wouldn’t comment on the lengthy review before its decision in September. But in a statement the agency characterized the approval as a “major step toward supporting the safe replacement of leaded aviation fuel.”

One explanation for the lengthy review process, Braly said, is that he took the path less traveled: He didn’t adhere to 100-octane specifications set by the ASTM standards committee. “God didn’t write those specs, and there’s nothing sacred about them,” Braly said. “All they did was constrain everybody’s ability to think of a solution.”

GAMI must now find a refinery to produce and distribute the fuel, which would mean partnering with an oil major. But a signoff from ASTM could be paramount to finding a partner, according to API. “Trying to produce a product without the ASTM specification has a bunch of problems for our members,” Searless said. READ MORE