“High Confidence Level” as Alcohol-to-Jet Fuel Closes in on Historic ASTM Approval

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As ASTM technical balloting is underway and as experts sift through and request revised submissions of technical data, insiders are pointing to an early 2016 approval for Gevo’s renewable alcohol-to-jet fuel.

In Washington, CAAFI Executive Director Steve Csonka declared a “high confidence level” in the approval of a key fuel standard, for alcohol-to-jet fuels, by ASTM, the international technical standards organization.

Csonka said that the fuel pathway, which is critical to Gevo’s expansion of its renewable jet fuel production capacity, could be approved as soon as the first quarter of next year, but cautioned that a final technical committee ASTM ballot and a full ASTM ballot stood between the fuel and the marketplace. ASTM plans to hold those two ballots concurrently, after Gevo provides additional technical data that was requested following a first technical ballot in recent weeks.

Gevo has been working through the rigorous ASTM process for six years, which includes extensive engine testing and data analysis by all of the major original equipment manufacturers to establish the specification for this drop in fuel. Once approved, this fuel can be seamlessly integrated into the existing distribution infrastructure and onto commercial aircraft.

A third concern raised was from the military sector. Although this is a commercial fuel spec, military buyers are now obtaining commercial-spec fuels (instead of a separate military spec), which is saving the Department of Defense “millions of dollars per year,” according to one source. In this case, important testing that was supposed to be completed by the US Air Force by this time relating to afterburner performance in F-35 fighters is not yet done — and is now not expected to be completed until the second half of 2016.

The military has in other cases of new fuels not completed testing, but has been able to obtain “NTO” letters (“no technical objection”) from key engine and airframe partners, and military-related delays have not held up approval of a commercial fuel spec, to date. However, in this case, while GE and Rolls-Royce provided NTO letters, one manufacturer felt unable to do so until completion of the F-35 testing.

In this case, Gevo will not have expanded production capacity to compete on new military contracts until after the testing is completed, so the military concerns have been laid to rest commercially by an assurance that these fuels will not be sold to the military in the interim.

Gevo’s ATJ is produced at its demo biorefinery in Silsbee, TX, using isobutanol produced at its Luverne, MN, fermentation facility.

In December 2014, the US Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command announced its first successful alcohol-to-jet supersonic flight, fueled by Gevo’s renewable isobutanol. This was the first aviation test program to comprehensively test and evaluate the performance of a 50/50 ATJ blend in supersonic (above Mach 1) afterburner operations – a critical test to successfully clear the F/A-18 for ATJ operations through its entire flight envelope. This military specification would allow for commercial supply of ATJ fuel to the Navy and Marines Corps. READ MORE