The Global Benefit of Aviation Biofuels

In a recent post, The Dynamics of Biofuels, I wrote, "The proper vision is that biofuels will be a critical part of the post-Peak Oil infrastructure. But they won't be a panacea. Indeed, aircraft and heavy equipment will likely never run on batteries. The energy demand is just too high. There are other energy hungry applications as well. So we need to reset our vision of biofuels, and aim for the proper goal. They'll get a lot less bad press that way too."

The commercial aviation industry, at least, has been aggressively attacking the challenge, and it appears that results are coming sooner than expected. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that passenger planes may be flying on biofuels within ten years. While the specific gain is relatively small, this represents a significant step for global efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Let me explain.

Airlines generate only about 2% of the world's fossil fuel emissions. They are more insidious than other industry's emissions because, being generated at 40,000 feet, they don't mix very well and remain in the atmosphere a long time. Be that as it may, it is not the emissions themselves that are driving the airlines to this, it is the public perception that goes with the emissions. Add to that the insecurity and volatility of the world's oil supply, and the airlines - and more acutely Boeing and Airbus - see the writing on the wall and the threat to the long term health of the industry.

Boeing and Airbus have been the primary drivers behind the aviation biofuels initiative. And that's good, because they have the global perspective that individual airlines do not need to have. Boeing and Airbus recognize that not only does the industry need to adopt biofuels, but since airplanes require fuel on every continent, in every climate zone, all times of year, the biofuel supply needs to be customized for each particular region, or 'market' as Boeing likes to put it.

Because of that, the biofuel effort has experimented with algae, flax, jatropha, switchgrass, canola, and even garbage. In short, the aviation industry - partly with Government funding - is developing a global database of fuel stocks, their availability, their efficiencies, and the best process to derive biofuels from each of them. This is a marvelous resource to support other efforts around the globe.

There are problems here. There is still a lot of concern that food stock will be sold for biofuel production making it that much more difficult to feed the world's poor. And the biofuel industry is already guilty of driving the conversion of rain forest into cropland. Finally, there are serious indications that the greenhouse gasses produced by biofuel production are currently being undercounted by a factor of four or five. So, at least on the emissions side of this equation, biofuels may actually be making things worse. But research is the first step in determining a beneficial path, and fortunately for all of us, there were other reasons to do it early.

Paul Birkeland develops Strategic Energy Management Systems at Integrated Renewable Energy for commercial and industrial concerns.