SEPTEMBER 2016 | 27 Root cause Boeing and partners around the world team for a cleaner future—with biofuels BY ERIC FETTERS-WALP potential future fuel for airplanes is growing out of saltwater sand near the shores A of the Arabian Gulf. Close to the Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, rows of salt-loving salicornia plants sit amid ponds of seawater. Boeing and local partners—Etihad Airways, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and jet-fuel company Takreer—are showing that plant oils from the salicornia seeds can be processed and refined into biofuel for the aviation industry. The biofuel project, in a nation that has been one of the world’s top oil producers over the past half-century, signals the growing shift away from fossil-based jet fuels toward cleaner, more efficient energy sources. Boeing is a partner on numerous fuel processing and feedstock-growing projects around the globe, striving to be at the forefront of efforts to create large-scale supplies of such fuels. At the same time, the company is an active supporter of creating standards and regulations that help reduce aviation emissions and provide incentives for the transition to cleaner fuels. While Boeing does not intend to become a biofuel producer, the company and its customers can benefit from encouraging the biofuel industry. “It’s very simple: You can have a great airplane with powerful engines, but without fuel, your airplane is not going anywhere,” said Darrin Morgan, director of Business Analysis and Environmental Strategy for Commercial Airplanes. “We’re one of the few sectors that can’t move away from using liquid fuels in the foreseeable future.” Environmental concern about carbon dioxide and other emissions from jetliners that crisscross the skies around the globe and around the clock is propelling the move away from petroleum-based fuels. Sustainable aviation biofuel can reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 50 percent on a life-cycle basis compared with fossilbased jet fuel, according to Boeing Research & Technology. That includes the absorption of carbon dioxide by plants that are then used for biofuels. Using biofuel also reduces sulfur emissions, soot and particulates. Biofuels have other advantages as well, Morgan said. Since 2011, when biofuel was
Frontiers September 2016 Issue
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