Biofuels could be cleared for Aircraft use

By Graham Warwick
Washington

In just five years, the aviation industry’s decades-long reliance on petroleum-based fuels has been turned on its head. The future lies in fuels from sources that range from animal fat to microalgae. But with the technology in hand, the question now is whether biofuel producers can raise the investment needed to launch commercial-scale production.

Approval of biofuels for use in aircraft, expected by mid-2011, is a critical step. A standard for jet fuels using synthesized hydrocarbons has already been crafted and the first annex, covering synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) produced via the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process, was approved last year. But a second annex covering bio-SPKs—also called hydrotreated renewable jet fuel (HRJ)—is eagerly awaited, as these promise to reduce aviation’s greenhouse-gas emissions (see p. 60).

For an industry that has used one jet fuel for decades, development of the new D7566 specification by standards organization ASTM International has moved surprisingly quickly. But it has not been easy, requiring substantial fuel and engine testing to ensure synthetic kerosenes are truly drop-in replacements for current aircraft designs.

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