Boeing Biofuel ‘Roadmap’ to 2020 Olympics Takes Flight

Boeing and Japanese aviation industry stakeholders have charted a course to develop sustainable aviation biofuel for flights during the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

The Initiatives for Next Generation Aviation Fuels — a consortium of 46 organizations including Boeing, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Japan’s government and the University of Tokyo — laid out a five-year “roadmap” to develop biofuel by 2020 as a way to reduce aviation’s environmental footprint.

Using sustainably produced biofuel reduces lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions by 50 to 80 percent compared to conventional petroleum fuel, according to the US Department of Energy.

Among the report’s conclusions:

• Industry, government and academia in Japan need to collaborate to promote the introduction of sustainable aviation biofuel to support Japan’s energy security and reduce aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
• Potential feedstocks, or biologically based sources, that could be used to produce sustainable aviation biofuel in Japan include municipal solid waste, plant oils and animal fats, used cooking oil, algae, cellulosic biomass and residues from the wood products industry.
• Policy incentives promoting the introduction of next-generation aviation fuels are a prerequisite to success in aviation biofuel use.

Using procedures designed by Boeing, Alaska Airlines says it is on track to save 87 gallons of fuel, shorten flight times by about nine minutes and reduce carbon emissions by nearly 1 metric ton, every time one of its planes land at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to a Boeing report published earlier this month.

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