BIOMASS HUB

Green Air reports yesterday that Airbus and Boeing will coordinate on efforts to push forward the development and commercialization of new generation sustainable biofuels.

Environmental concerns, climate emissions, and oil price volatility are all creating a perfect storm for the airline industry, which has initiated a bit of a gold rush for high-performance aviation biofuels.  While successful flights have proven that BIO-SPK performs “as well if not better” than existing fuels, biofuel shortages make the rapid commercialization of green fuel for airline use particularly difficult (see Biomass Intel’s discussion of biofuels and “crack spread” here).

While speaking about the partnership between the two plane manufacturers, Airbus Senior Vice President Public Affairs & Communication Rainer Ohler explained:

Biofuels is a very important subject for our industry.  In five to ten years, we believe biofuels will become available and we are calling upon lawmakers and regulators to make sure aviation gets enough of these fuels because we have no other alternative means of power for our aircraft.  That’s why we are lobbying for aviation to be a preferred biofuel user in future.

To date, Airbus has concentrated efforts on Fischer-Tropsch derived synthetic fuels while Boeing has eschewed fossil-based synthetic fuels in favor of biofuels due to concerns about the CO2 emissions.

The International Airline Transport Association (IATA) believes that by 2020, 6 percent of total jet fuel supplies will come from biofuels, representing 5 percent savings in the industry’s CO2 emissions.  As this amounts to around 17 billion litres (around 4.5 billion US gallons), the market for jet biofuels – based on last month’s rising average jet fuel price of $2 per gallon – could amount to over $9 billion within 10 years.

The article from Green Air is available here.