approved for commercial aviation, more than 2,500 commercial flights using biofuels have shown they perform as well as or better than traditional jet fuel, said Bill Lyons, director of Global Technology for Boeing Research & Technology. “You’re not sacrificing performance with these fuels,” Lyons said. “Engines and airplanes have evolved over time to take advantage of biofuels better than before.” But a lack of infrastructure is a big obstacle to replacing jet fuel with aviation biofuels on a large scale. Over the past century, the petroleum industry has built vast production, refining and distribution infrastructure, which doesn’t yet exist for biofuels, according to Morgan. That is why Boeing has partnered with companies and research institutes on six continents in recent years for a variety of research studies, testing, and demonstrations on everything from feedstock farms to fuel refining and logistics. That regional approach allows Boeing and its partners to test different potential sources for large-scale biofuel production, Morgan said. In addition to the project in the UAE, Boeing and South African Airways, SkyNRG of the Netherlands and Sunchem SA are developing sustainable biofuel from an energy-rich tobacco plant called Solaris. In China, Boeing and a variety of partners are trying to make sustainable biofuel from agricultural waste materials, such as corn husks, as well as used cooking oil. In Canada, researchers are looking at wood waste and sawdust as a potential fuel source in studies that involve Boeing as a partner. In Southeast Asia and Brazil, Boeing supports biofuel research and efforts to grow feedstocks. And Boeing is contributing toward Japan’s goal of using biofuel for flights to and from the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in that nation. “If produced sustainably, aviation biofuel can reduce carbon emissions 50 to 80 percent compared with conventional fossil fuel,” said Dong Yang Wu, a Technical Fellow and managing director of Boeing Research & Technology–China. “This can help reduce the environmental footprint of the entire industry and promote the sustainable growth of the local commercial aviation market.” Boeing and its partners also are pursuing approval for “green diesel,” which already is being produced in significant amounts, notably by Finlandbased Neste Corp. Jim Kinder, a Senior Technical Fellow in Propulsion, said Boeing is working with companies in the U.S. and China, the U.S. Department of 28 | BOEING FRONTIERS
Frontiers September 2016 Issue
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