Advanced BioFuels USA

by Joe Petrie (AviationPros.com)  At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac), Alaska Airlines is forging ahead with plans to implement a biofuel supply for its commercial jets.   …   Carol Sim, director of environmental affairs for Alaska Airlines, said the company’s move to new fuel began about seven years ago when a group of stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest called Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest (SAFN) — which included the airline, the Port of Seattle, Port of Portland, Port of Spokane, Boeing and various government entities — wanted to determine if there was a feedstock available in the region to support a viable biofuel industry.

In 2011, ASM approved conversion technology for HEFA, so the airline decided to do something in that space and conducted 75 flights in a one-month time.

“With the exception of United’s AltAir facility in LA, there currently is no commercial supply available in the United States,” Sim said. “So all of the flights that we’ve done have been batch scaled production of the fuel.”

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“We have a 2020 sustainability goal to have a commercial supply of alternative fuels at one of our airports,” Sim said. “We’re focused on Sea-Tac right now since that’s our hometown airport and our largest fuel intake.”

Adam Klauber, director of sustainable aviation for Carbon War Room (CWR), said the usage of the alternative fuels is one of the most promising areas of reducing overall emissions at airports. The company is currently working with Sea-Tac on a biofuel program so it can become a leader in providing the fuel for commercial aircraft.

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Stephanie Meyn, climate protection program manager for Sea-Tac said the infrastructure study for the project will be released to the public in the coming weeks to highlight what will be needed to accommodate the biojet fuel followed by the financial report.

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Meyn said the biofuel volume being produced at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) right now is roughly 10 million to 30 million gallons per year. Five million gallons to 10 million gallon production is one or two trucks per day. The Seattle region needs more especially if it’s going to keep growing.

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In January 2016, Air BP worked with Avinor and SkyNRG to deliver biojet via hydrant system at Oslo Airport Gardermoen. Jon Platt, CEO of Air BP, said there has been no surprises with the system or using the existing infrastructure for delivery.

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“We’re trying to address the fact that conventional fuels — fossil fuels — continue to receive an exorbitant amount of subsidies and we believe that additional subsidies are necessary,” he (Klauber) said.

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Right now Klauber said airports with greater abilities with their resources and a regional interest in biofuels can help smaller airports located near them by supporting the availability of biofuels.

“What we’ve seen with the pricing is when you’re very, very small…the cost is just extraordinarily high,” he said. “If we can start demand to help jump-start scaled supply chains and larger volumes, we believe this will help the industry and on a region by region basis.

“If there’s greater demand at Sea-Tac, then perhaps this will support Bellingham, this will support Spokane, this will help make the fuel more available regionally and more cost effective.”

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Airports may need to be supplied a blending tank and pumps, which Klauber said is a relatively modest investment for biofuel.

“It’s likely that this would occur off the airport given fuel consumption preferences for having certified fuels once it gets within the fencing line,” he said. “However, Sea-Tac looked into potentially creating blending capacity at the airport itself to see if that’s viable and legal and it looks like it might be.”

If there’s blending occurs at airports it will require additional training and standard operating procedures for blending and containing unblended fuel, Klauber said, but if the blending occurs off-site, the training could be an informational session with staff about how biofuels are functionally identical to fossil fuels.

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Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo Inc., which created a technology to convert cellulosic sugars derived from wood waste into renewable isobutanol before further converting it into Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) fuel, said the airlines want the low carbon emission fuels to avoid piecemeal regulations across geographies they fly over in the future.

The type of fuel Gevo uses is blended in up to 30 percent and once set, it’s certified as standard jet fuel. At larger airports it can be blended on-site or in a central location and shipped because it’s the same as standard jet fuel.  READ MORE