Biotech Updates

Boeing Heads Airline-Supported Initiative For Sustainable Aviation Biofuels

October 17, 2008
http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2077
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/environment/pdf/sustainable_aviation_fuel_users_group.pdf
http://www.biofuels-news.com/news/boeing_initiative.html

Aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, together with some major airlines, has formed a “Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group “ to accelerate the development and availability of sustainable biofuels”. According to Biomass Magazine, the airlines supporting the initiative include Air France, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Cargolux, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, SAS and Virgin Atlantic Airways. The group has declared its commitment to advance the development, certification, and commercial use of drop-in sustainable aviation fuels”. The commitment considers four considerations as “minimum criteria” for sustainable aviation biofuels, which “must be addressed by verifiable means”: (1) the production of the aviation biofuel feedstock should not compete with food, and must minimize adverse biodiversity/ecological impacts, (2) throughout its life cycle (i.e., from feedstock cultivation, to harvesting, processing, and end-use), the aviation biofuel should show a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional (i.e., petroleum-derived) jet fuel, (3) development projects associated with the biofuel should improve socio-economic conditions for small-scale farmers and do not require the involuntary displacement of local populations, and (4) Native ecosystems and “high conservation value areas” should not be cleared and used as plantations for the aviation biofuel feedstock. The Biofuels International website reports that “the group has commissioned two initial studies investigating algae and jatropha-sourced biofuels life cycle carbon dioxide emissions and socio-economic impact”..