IFB hopes to help aviation biofuels take off
Illinois Farm Bureau hopes to help make the friendly skies a bit friendlier for farmers and greener for fliers.
Martin Ross
Published: Aug 11, 2012
Illinois Farm Bureau hopes to help make the friendly skies a bit friendlier for farmers and greener for fliers.
Last November, Continental Airlines Flight 1403 became the U.S.’ first biofuel-powered paid passenger flight when the plane landed at O'Hare International Airport. The Boeing 737-800, operated by United Airlines, burned "green jet fuel” derived in part from algae that produce oil from plant wastes.
Now, United and Boeing -- companies with a strong Illinois base -- are eyeing expanded biofuels use to meet new European Union standards for low-carbon aviation fuels. IFB, Iowa Farm Bureau, and other groups will consult with the recently created Midwest Aviation Sustainable Biofuels Initiative (MASBI) regarding development of “advanced aviation biofuels” within a 12-state region.
MASBI was formed by United, Boeing, Honeywell’s UOP (formerly United Oil Products), the Chicago Department of Aviation, and the Clean Energy Trust. In a release announcing its formation, MASBI suggested “significant promise for biomass (fuel) feedstock.”
The fuel for Flight 1403 was supplied by San Francisco-based Solazyme, which previously supplied Australia’s Qantas Airlines. United has contracted to buy an annual 20 million gallons of Solajet from the tech company.
Technologies such as Solazyme’s offer MASBI’s heralded potential. Unlike many microbial enzymes used in corn ethanol production, its algal conversion technique could help tap a variety of crop residues, such as corn stover.
“Illinois farmers could soon be helping to power Boeing airplanes flown by United pilots in the European airspace,” IFB economist Mike Doherty suggested.
As part of its corporate “eco-skies” campaign, Continental already is involved with various stakeholders through USDA’s “Farm to Fly” biofuels initiative, the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, and DLA Energy, an arm of the military’s Defense Logistics Agency.
Doherty cites Illinois potential to capture aviation market share, given major fleets at O’Hare and Midway airports and St. Louis’ Lambert Airport. And the aviation fleet essentially is a “captured market” with few green fuel alternatives -- “They can’t use electric; they can’t use natural gas,” Doherty pointed out.
Aviation also offers new market potential for the biodiesel industry, which already has made major off-road inroads at Lambert Airport. Renewable Energy Group spokesman Alicia Kramer, whose company operates plants in Danville and Seneca, suggests the same oil or fat conversion process used to produce biodiesel could be applied to generating industrial chemicals and “renewable jet fuel.”
“We want to diversify into the production of other advanced biofuels,” Kramer told FarmWeek.
Permalink: Click here
|