BRICS and Mortar: The Fast-Growing BRIC Economies Take Aim at Aviation Biofuels

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Brazil, Russia, India and China — and throw in South Africa for a complete BRICSA set. The vaunted new economic engines for the 21st century — and, lately, home to a beehive of activity around drop-in, sustainable, aviation biofuels. What’s up, with whom, where, when and why?
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Of late, the activity has been shifting towards the BRICSA nations, and it wasn’t entirely a surprise when Boeing launched an initiative with South African Airwaysand the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) to expand opportunities for “smallholder” farmers in Southern Africa to grow crops that produce sustainable fuels.
The program builds on a global effort by Boeing, RSB and other partners to help farmers with small plots of land gain access to markets for sustainable biofuels and biomaterials. In the coming months, Boeing and RSB will work with Southern African stakeholders to create pilot programs to build knowledge and skills among groups of farmers who want to certify their crops as sustainable.
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Last November, Boeing and GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes said they will work together to speed the research, development and approval of new sources of sustainable aviation biofuel in Brazil. Their collaboration will support GOL’s plans to use this lower-carbon jet fuel on more flights during upcoming major sporting events and also will benefit long-term development of a new sustainable aviation biofuel industry in Brazil.
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A few weeks before that, Avianca Brasil selected the Byogy Renewables Alcoholto Jet = fully renewable aviation biofuel process to source their environment friendly alternate low carbon aviation fuels.
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Last September, Airbus and RT-Biotechprom have signed an agreement to make aviation biofuel from Russian sources, planning to have results by the end of 2014. ... Airbus is also currently working with China, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Australia.
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Last November, Solena Fuels revealed discussions with city authorities in Chennai to use the city’s 5,000 tons of MSW per day to produce 120 million liters of aviation biofuel and 45 million liters of diesel per year. The facility would cost $450 million to build with an eight year ROI. Solena’s technology is syngas-based using plasma reactors to treat the feedstock.
Back in 2011, Virgin Atlantic teamed with LanzaTech to create renewable jet fuel that it had hoped would power planes from Shanghai and Delhi to Heathrow within two to three years. LanzaTech is working on producing its fuel in India and China, making those two destinations easy targets for implementation of the ‘green fleet.’
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Last month, the Civil Aviation Administration of China granted Sinopec Chinese Technical Standard Order Authorization (CTSOA) for aviation biofuels, certifying that the fuel has met all required industry standards. An April 2013 test flight using hydrotreated palm oil and recycled cooking oil feedstock on an Airbus 320 owned by China Eastern Airlines was the test case for the certification. Sinopec said it will now work on expanding the feedstocks it uses to produce aviation biofuel.
Sinopec wants to produce commercial scale biofuels for airplanes and has sought permission to do so from the country’s national aviation regulator. The company expects it could produce a third of the national aviation fuel demand, 12 million metric tons, from biofuels by 2020.
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This past January in the Emirates, Boeing, Etihad Airways, Takreer, Total, and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology announced a collaboration for sustainable aviation biofuels in the UAE.
The collaboration, BIOjet Abu Dhabi: Flight Path to Sustainability, will develop a comprehensive framework for a UAE biofuel supply chain, which is already in motion. READ MORE