IN FOCUS: Pricing and Supply Key to Unlocking Large-Scale US Biofuel Use

by Lori Ranson (FlightGlobal) Successful commercial biofuel flights operated by US carriers in late 2011 were underpinned by an understanding that price and supply chain infrastructure remain the big hurdles to creating a viable full-scale alternative aviation fuels industry in the USA. However, the US government has muscled up support in an attempt to kick-start the quest to replace kerosene.

...United-Continental used the same Boeing 737-800 its Continental subsidiary operated in 2009 to perform a two-engine demonstration using biofuels derived from algae and jatropha. The single flight in November used a 40:60 algae-derived blend supplied by San Francisco-based company Solazyme.

Alaska's biofuel was a 20% blend made from used cooking oil. Its biofuel flight programme marked the first time a Bombardier Q400 turboprop was flown using a biofuel blend, with 64 Q400 flights comprising the bulk of the 75-flight trial. The other 11 flights were operated by Alaska Boeing 737-800s.

Vice-president of corporate and legal affairs Keith Loveless says that part of Alaska's logic behind operating the partially biofuel-powered Q400s on the popular Seattle-Portland route was to get the attention of policymakers, as well as rousing business interest in the carbon reduction benefits offered by biofuels.

...Alaska's decision to settle on a 20% blend reflected supply and logistics challenges. "It kind of goes back to how difficult it was to find the biofuel," Loveless says. He describes a geographical patchwork in sourcing the fuel: the broker was based in the Netherlands and the supplier in Louisiana, while the fuel was refined in Texas.

... (United/Continental managing director of global environmental affairs Jimmy) Samartzis concludes that the most significant roadblock to the biofuel industry achieving commercial scale is the capital needed for plants and production. Alaska's Loveless offers a similar verdict. "It really is a supply chain and cost issue at this point," he says, noting that alternative aviation fuel is technologically indistinguishable from jet fuel. However, Boeing director of biofuel strategy Darrin Morgan believes biofuel production could ramp up significantly this year, predicting millions of gallons in biofuel output. He also believes that while the price of biofuels will remain higher than traditional jet fuel, the cost of alternatives could reach "spitting distance of petroleum" in 2012. READ MORE