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Sustainable Aviation Fuel Blending and Logistics
11/25/2024
Decarbonizing aviation requires a multipronged approach in both alternative fuel use and efficiency to meet emissions reductions and sustainability requirements and goals. In 2022, aviation accounted for 2.1% of human-induced carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions and 12% of transportation CO2 emissions (ATAG 2024). About 80% of aviation emissions are from flights longer than about 930 miles (ATAG 2024). Aviation was also responsible for 9% of domestic transportation greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 (EPA 2022). The United States has a significant commercial aviation sector accounting for nearly 28% of global jet fuel use (IATA 2024b, EIA 2024g).
Authors: Moriarty, K.; McCormick, R.
SAF Policy Scorecard: Evaluating State-Level Sustainable Aviation Fuel Policies in the United States
11/1/2024
As several states across the U.S. have begun to adopt or consider policies to expand sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) development, this paper compares key provisions for state-level policies, analyzes the state support available to fund each policy initiative, and assesses the potential of each policy to support federal goals of decarbonization and sustainability. This report also highlights three critical shortcomings in the current U.S. SAF policy landscape: 1) state support for some SAF pathways may not increase overall low-carbon fuel supply; 2) short-term or short-lived policies may impede long-term SAF investment; and 3) existing SAF policy frameworks incentivize the use of SAF without penalizing aviation emissions, violating the “polluter pays” principle.
Authors: Andy Navarrete, Nikita Pavlenko, Jane O'Malley
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge Roadmap Implementation Framework
11/1/2024
Announced in September 2021, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge is a governmentwide initiative to drive innovation in the domestic SAF industry. The goals of the SAF Grand Challenge seek to achieve lower costs, enhanced sustainability, and expanded production of SAF across the United States. This implementation framework report inventories and maps the current federal capacity to act on the steps laid out in the SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap published in September 2022. This report is intended to inform relevant stakeholders of federal capabilities and programs that will advance the goals laid out in the SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap, importantly highlighting any current barriers or areas for improvement within federal agency programming.
Authors: William Goldner, Justin Bredlau, Prem Lobo, Valerie Reed, Zia Haq, Craig Brown
Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Sustainable Aviation Fuel
11/1/2024
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began publishing its Pathways to Commercial Liftoff Report series, which provides roadmaps for both the public and private sectors to scale the domestic industries of each alternative fuel type, specifically for fuel-related technologies that will accelerate transportation-specific decarbonization. This report, the newest in the series, offers a roadmap for scaling sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The report provides an overview and value proposition; the current state of SAF technologies and markets; pathways towards industry scale; industry action items; metrics to track progress; and more. This document is also intended to exist as a living document, with the DOE updating strategies as research and development progresses.
Authors: Campbell Howe, Elizabeth Rolfes, Dr. Katelyn O'Dell, Dr. Brandon McMurty, Sonali Razdan, Dr. Anne Otwell
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) State-of-Industry Report: State of SAF Production Process
7/1/2024
Because of their compatibility with existing fuel infrastructure and vehicle technologies, biofuels will be a critical component of decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors in the U.S. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will similarly be a changemaker in the aviation industry. This study examines the various SAF production pathways, provides an overview of the current state of the industry, and addresses challenges and hurdles facing the industry in order to proactively mitigate their impact.
Authors: Oscar Rosales Calderon, Ling Tao, Zia Abdullah, Kristi Moriarty, Sharon Smolinski
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) State-of-Industry Report: Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids Pathway
7/1/2024
This technical report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) details the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production process, with a particular focus on the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) pathway, which is currently the only commercially deployed SAF production pathway to produce a significant volume of fuel. The report outlines and evaluates the HEFA supply chain and identifies obstacles that could hinder future commercial production. While specific to SAF, this report may offer information relevant to the production of other liquid transportation fuels due to the more widely applicable nature of producing hydrocarbon fuels.
Authors: Oscar Rosales Calderon, Ling Tao, Zia Abdullah, Michael Talmadge, Anelia Milbrandt
The Role of Biofuels and Biomass Feedstocks for Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050
4/11/2024
Bioenergy holds significant potential to transform the transportation sector, helping to eliminate hard-to-abate sources of emissions, such as aviation, that lack viable electrification alternatives. Further, integrating more biomass-based electrification pathways will diversify the country’s electrical grid, increasing its stability in the future. This study uses process-based analyses of biomass resources and pathways to demonstrate the decarbonization potential and cost-efficiency of scaling bioenergy in the United States.
The Future of Biofuels in the United States Transportation Sector
12/29/2023
This article analyses conversion options for biomass to fuels in the U.S. transportation sector, particularly for heavy duty transportation and aviation, based on regional carbon dioxide transportation and injection costs and current U.S. tax credits. The article found that that under current credits biofuels play a role only in some regions of the U.S., but a range of policy scenarios, including combining biofuel production with carbon-capture and storage, can lead to biofuels playing a significant role nationally.
Authors: Geissler, C; Ryu, J; Maravelias, C
A Deep Decarbonization Framework for the United States Economy – a Sector, Sub-Sector, and End-Use Based Approach
12/8/2023
Using the recently developed Decarbonization Analysis Model, this report analyzes the estimated greenhouse gas mitigation potential for projected energy demand based on several sector-level and cross-sectoral decarbonization pathways, including electrification, low-carbon fuels, and the reduction of fugitive emissions. The report analyzes the remaining projected emissions and highlights the need for developing low-carbon and carbon-negative alternatives to mitigate the fossil-based carbon emissions resulting from the fossil-based fuels in heavy-duty transportation.
Authors: Kar, S; Hawkins, T; Zaimes, G; Oke, D; Singh, U; Wu, X; Kwon, H; Zhang, S; Zang, G; Zhou, Y; Elgowainy, A; Wang, M; Ma, O
Bioenergy Technology Office Multi-Year Program Plan
3/1/2023
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) works alongside national laboratories, universities, and private industry partners to advance clean energy technologies sourced from renewable carbon resources. This Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP) establishes BETO’s missions and goals, while also identifying strategic approaches to the Office’s research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) plans. Included in these plans are initiatives to decarbonize multiple sectors of the U.S. economy, de-risk relevant technologies, create jobs and economic opportunities, and increase participation in the continued development and use of clean energy technologies. This MYPP is at once an internal, operational guide, as well as a resource to communicate BETO’s mission and goals to stakeholders and to the public.
Impacts of Regional Air Mobility and Electrified Aircraft on Airport Electricity Infrastructure and Demand
2/1/2023
The U.S. aviation system is an important part of the nation’s economy, transporting hundreds of millions of passengers and billions of pounds of freight annually. In the coming decades, air transportation of people and cargo is set to expand; however, several challenges currently face the aviation sector, including achieving greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, serving larger populations through regional and local airports, managing aircraft noise, and reducing the cost of operations. This report summarizes an analysis of the electrical infrastructure that might be necessary to serve electric aircraft at a subset of airports where potential electric aircraft flight demand has been provided. Additionally, an estimate for the amount of on-site distributed energy resources that could be used to serve electric aircraft in cost-effective scenarios is provided.
Authors: Cox, J.; Harris, T.; Krah, K.; Morris, J.; Li, X.; Cary, S.
Evaluation of Performance Variables to Accelerate the Deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels at a Regional Scale
11/19/2022
An increase in jet fuel consumption and its associated emissions across the world have led to the need for alternative technologies to produce sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). One option to produce SAFs is to utilize waste or biomass-based feedstocks that has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% or more compared to conventional jet fuel. However, there is a lack of understanding of how the synergistic effects of key performance variables could hinder or help the deployment of aviation fuels on a regional scale. Here, we assess the implications of key variables–including type and quantity of waste/biomass feedstock availability, cost of SAF production, life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, policies, and fuel/infrastructure logistics–on the deployment of SAF at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Our sensitivity analysis shows renewable fuel incentives and feedstock price to be key performance variables affecting the production cost and deployment of SAF.
Authors: Bhatt, A.H.; Zhang, Y.; Milbrandt, A.; Newes, E.; Moriarty, K.; Klein, B.; Tao, L.
U.S. Renewable Diesel Fuel and Other Biofuels Plant Production Capacity
8/8/2022
This report is intended to measure estimated gallons of renewable diesel fuel, renewable heating oil, renewable jet fuel, renewable naphtha and gasoline, and other biofuels (excluding fuel ethanol and biodiesel) and biointermediates that a plant is capable of producing over a period of one year (365 consecutive days) starting on the first day of each report month.
Authors: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Sustainable Aviation Fuel Logistics and Production Study
10/1/2021
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) sustainability commitment is to meet the goals set by the Paris Agreement, with an interim greenhouse gas reduction target of 35% by 2025 and 80% by 2050. PANYNJ is seeking sustainable solutions to reduce carbon emissions for all public forms of transportation, including aviation. Similarly, the global aviation industry adopted the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), which seeks to cap net carbon dioxide (CO2) aviation emissions at 2020 levels through 2035. Industry has also set a goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 50% compared to 2005 levels by 2050. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), made from non-petroleum feedstocks, is a near-term alternative fuel that reduces emissions from air transportation. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a resource assessment and a techno-economic analysis to identify the potential for production in the port district. Although SAF could be sourced from other areas of the United States or imported, an evaluation of local production was conducted due to the potential positive impacts of a circular economy by converting local waste feedstocks into SAF for use at nearby airports. The study found that the highest volumes of feedstock nearby were municipal solid waste and woody biomass. SAF must be blended with Jet A up to certain percent determined by ASTM International fuel quality standards prior to use in aircraft. SAF from a stand-alone facility could be delivered by barge, rail, or truck to a Linden, New Jersey based terminal for blending with Jet A or it could be blended in the Gulf region and shipped via the Colonial pipeline to one of the terminals. The investment will take place at the terminal(s) to accommodate SAF/Jet A blends and it will be business as usual for the airports in how they receive fuel and distribute it to aircraft.
Authors: Moriarty, K.; Milbrandt, A.; Tao, L.
PTC and ITC for Aviation Fuel: Analysis Using the Biomass Scenario Model
3/5/2021
This analysis uses the Biomass Scenario Model, a system dynamics model of the bioenergy supply chain, to explore different scenarios of implementation of a production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) for sustainable aviation fuel.
Authors: Newes, E.; Vimmerstedt, L.; Haq, Z.; Lindauer, A.