Advanced BioFuels USA

(Advantage News)  The NCERC at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville hosted a presentation from The Boeing Company’s Joe Ellsworth, regional director of environmental strategy and integration, who presented Boeing and Sustainable Aviation Fuels in late August.

Ellsworth also met with NCERC Director of Research Dr. Yan Zhang and Assistant Professor of Chemistry and NCERC Fermentation Chemist Dr. Jie Dong, who took him on a tour of the pilot plant and laboratories.

Following the tour, Ellsworth delivered the presentation to attendees, including Chancellor Randy Pembrook, Graduate School Dean Jerry Weinberg, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Greg Budzban and others.

Relative to fossil fuels, sustainable aviation fuel is an unconventional jet fuel that reduces carbon dioxide emissions throughout its life cycle. The aviation industry prefers to use the acronym SAF because not all fuel feedstocks are derived from biomass. 

SAF is produced from a wide range of elements, including municipal solid waste, cellulosic waste, used cooking oil, halophytes, algae and more. Some types of SAF perform better than Jet A and Jet A-1 fuels used in aviation because of their higher energy density, so less fuel is needed. Other key advantages are diversified supply through non-food crop sources, and other economic and social benefits.

Ellsworth described Boeing’s role and actions in the industry to support its ultimate goal of reducing emissions. Boeing and the commercial aviation industry have voluntarily committed to stop the growth of carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 and cut them to half of what they were in 2005 by 2050. Sustainable fuel has the best long-term potential to meet those goals.

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When produced sustainably, scientific studies show biofuel can reduce emissions up to 80 percent over the fuel’s life cycle compared to petroleum fuel, depending on the source used to make it. 

Ellsworth also noted Boeing’s involvement in a collaborative aquaculture project in the United Arab Emirates.

“Boeing collaborates with partners around the world on projects using purpose-grown feedstocks that produce sustainable aviation fuel and can also address other issues,” Ellsworth said. “The Seawater Energy and Agriculture System in the United Arab Emirates, for example, produces fuel from oil contained in plants that grow in the desert. The plants are fertilized by farm-raised fish, which then provide food for a nation that imports nearly 85 percent of its needs.”

Some additional Boeing projects include nicotine-free tobacco feedstock in South Africa to revitalize farming communities negatively affected by declining demand for nicotine-based products and a sugarcane feedstock used to produce sustainable aviation fuel.  READ MORE