In Race to Develop Aviation Biofuels, Midwest Wants to Win

by Kari Lydersen (Midwest Energy News) ...Commercial-scale development of aviation biofuels is still in the early stages, and as experts explained at the Airports Going Green conference in Chicago earlier in November, viable aviation biofuel industries would look significantly different in different regions of the country. With growing competition for government research dollars and investment between regions, Midwestern players from the industry, academic and investor realms are trying to position the region as the national leader.
...The Midwest Aviation Sustainable Biofuels Initiative (MASBI) is a partnership between different players with an interest in aviation biofuel development, led by airline companies, the Chicago Department of Aviation and the Chicago business incubator Clean Energy Trust.
They say there are numerous reasons why the Midwest is particularly qualified to be the country’s aviation biofuel capitol. The region has no shortage of agricultural waste that could be tapped as a fuel feedstock, and it also has the physical space, infrastructure, manpower and expertise to develop other potential feedstock crops.
... Clean Energy Trust executive director Amy Francetic says states can also give regional biofuel development efforts a boost. Washington state has passed a bonding authority meant to help airports invest in biofuel infrastructure and development, and Kentucky supports biofuels through their alternative fuels tax break. Ohio is supporting an algae biofuels research program in conjunction with the Defense Department, she said, and North Carolina has devoted $5 million a year in state funding to aviation biofuel efforts. In Illinois, the University of Illinois’s biosciences institute is working with BP with funding from an Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) grant.
“We need to leverage ways airports can work with their cities and states; help universities and young companies compete for research funding; look for state, municipal and federal incentives and bonding mechanisms; and establish Midwest regional partnerships, including with airports,” Francetic said. She added that airlines stand to benefit long-term from using biofuels since they create less wear and tear on engines.
...“That value chain is long, distributed and unique in many ways … what’s familiar in agriculture is not familiar in the oil industry.”
For example, he (James Rekoske, Honeywell UOP vice president and general manager) explained, oil contracts are usually settled on 30-day timetables, whereas agricultural producers are typically paid within three days. He said the company converting the feedstock to fuel will typically be the lynchpin, bearing the main responsibility for brokering deals and raising capital and depending on reliable suppliers and distributors on either side of the equation to make it all work. READ MORE