Technological and commercial maturity of aviation biofuels

Airline operations generated 705 Mt of CO2 in 2013, representing around 2% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions [1]. 99% of airline emissions are caused by the combustion of kerosene [2,3]. Aviation biofuels (biojet) have the potential to provide a near-term solution to the twin challenges of decarbonisation and security of fuel supply. However, production costs of biomass-derived kerosene are considerably higher than the selling price of petroleum-derived kerosene due to the relative immaturity of conversion technologies, small number of producers and competition with other biofuel markets. This paper reviews the commercial and technological maturity of various technologies for converting biomass to synthetic jet fuel and evaluates them according to their Fuel Readiness Level (FRL). This work is part of the EIT Climate KIC project ‘Fuel Supply Chain Development and Flight Operations’ (RENJET) which aims to accelerate the development of renewable jet fuel, simultaneously increasing availability and stimulating demand