Advanced BioFuels USA

by Rebecca White, Lieve Laurens, Nate Kommers (Algae Biomass Organization/Biofuels Diges) Among the dozens of policy innovations that Congress must consider in climate change legislation is a tool that could help trigger the next stage in decarbonizing one of the most significant industries in the world: aviation.

The provision is a tax credit that would give producers of sustainable aviation fuels, known as SAFs, a level playing field when it comes to competing with traditional fuels. It would mark a new era in a long effort to address the 2% of all greenhouse gases that come from aviation, and become a gateway to building a sustainable fuel infrastructure that works with the world’s existing fleets. SAFs take advantage of a variety of sustainable fuel feedstocks such as waste oil, tallow, agricultural crops, or microorganisms like yeasts and algae.

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Yet despite a long list of advantages that include lower carbon intensities, lower particulate levels and even better performance potentials, SAFs make up less than 1% of aviation fuel used today. So, what’s holding things back?

It doesn’t seem to be a lack of vocal support.

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It isn’t a technology problem either, as a dedicated community of engineers and scientists have refined SAF production in countless ways. 

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 A decade ago, there was a frenzy of interest in algae for fuel that stirred up investments and lofty promises by a number of startups – all based on very exciting, but also preliminary, technical analysis of how efficiently algae could be used to turn sunlight, water and fertilizer into fuel. Unfortunately, those promises gave way to delays, then frustration, and finally outright skepticism on whether the fuels would ever work.

Yet over the past ten years the algae industry has quietly been overcoming the hurdles. There has been no single breakthrough to make headlines. Instead, dozens of new innovations across the board have improved efficiencies, streamlined processing, and boosted production possibilities.

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 If algae can be scaled-up to commercial production costs in this range, it would translate into an aviation fuel price approaching economic viability, while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions.

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Additionally, algae biomass is well-suited to be processed in existing refining infrastructure.

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Current SAF production facilities are tiny compared to the economies of scale available to fossil fuels. Unless we can achieve meaningful production, the goals so many have set for a low carbon aviation industry will be impossible to meet.

There are some signs of serious investments being made in SAF production. Neste, a global leader in biofuel production, recently announced a new capacity of up to half a million tons of sustainable aviation fuels^[12]. This is equivalent to about 165 million gallons. Some estimates indicate that from a feedstock perspective, there is enough raw material to fuel all of aviation by 2030, but production is held back by the scale of new technologies and plants that can run on less constrained feedstocks^[13]. And if we look at the number of SAF production plants around the globe that have been announced or that are already in production we can see production approaching 3.5 million metric tons by 2025^[14]. 

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Every viable feedstock will need more physical infrastructure that can transform biomass into SAFs. These are capital heavy endeavors, and many of them may take a long time for a meaningful ROI to materialize. This is why the tax credit that had been included in the Build Back Better legislation, and other policy supports targeting commercial production, is so important.

A SAF tax credit will give a sense of stability to producers and investors, making it much easier to commit to building large-scale facilities.  READ MORE

Biofuel Producers to Urge Congress to Review Lower-Carbon Aviation Fuel Tax Credits (GrainNet/Reuters)

Could algae be the answer to aviation’s big carbon problem? (Geographical)