Boeing and Canadian aviation industry launch renewable jet fuel project

Aerospace giant Boeing, with support from Canada's aviation industry and other stakeholders, is working to turn leftover forestry residues into sustainable aviation biofuel.

Canada, which has extensive sustainably certified forests, has long used mill and forest residues to make wood pellets that are used to generate electricity.

A consortium that includes Boeing, Air Canada, WestJet, Bombardier, research institutions, and industry partners will assess whether forest waste could also be harnessed to produce sustainable aviation biofuel using thermochemical processing.

‘Sustainable aviation biofuel will play a critical role in reducing aviation's carbon emissions over the long term,’ says Julie Felgar, managing director of environmental strategy and integration at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

‘Canada is in a terrific position to leverage its sustainable forests to make environmental progress for its aviation industry and other transport sectors.’

A 2015 Boeing-sponsored study by University of British Columbia (UBC) found that aviation biofuel made from forest waste could meet 10% – about 46 million gallons, or 175 million litres – of British Columbia's annual jet fuel demand.

These efforts could also supply biofuel to ground and marine vehicles, saving about 1 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year on a life cycle basis across the transportation sector, the study found.

This project, announced during the 2015 Canadian Bioeconomy Conference in Vancouver, was recently awarded funding by the Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN) of Canada as part of a portfolio of investments in technologies to reduce aviation's carbon emissions.

The consortium is led by UBC and Noram Engineering and Constructors of Vancouver.

Project partner SkyNRG, based in the Netherlands, is the global market leader for sustainable jet fuel, having supplied biofuel to more than 20 carriers worldwide.

Using sustainably produced biofuel reduces lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions by 50 to 80% compared to conventional petroleum fuel, according to the US Department of Energy.

Boeing has active biofuel projects on six continents, including in the US, Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, Middle East, South Africa, and Southeast Asia.