Canadian project gets underway to create a sustainable aviation biofuel supply chain from local feedstocks
Thu 7 Apr 2016 – A three-year collaborative supply chain project is underway in Canada to introduce 400,000 litres of sustainable aviation biofuel sourced from local feedstocks into a shared fuel system at a yet to be determined Canadian airport. Canada’s Biojet Supply Chain Initiative (CBSCI) involves 14 stakeholder organisations made up of industry and academic research, and will develop an operational framework for supplying aviation biofuel into a multi-user, co-mingled airport fuel system. The project will source renewable feedstocks from Canada’s abundant agriculture and forestry biomass using sustainable production and harvesting practices. The commercially available, certifiably sustainable oleochemical (plants and animal fats) feedstocks will then be converted into fuels using the ASTM-approved Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) conversion process, says Air Canada.
CBSCI is coordinated through BioFuelNet Canada’s Aviation Task Force and managed by Waterfall Group, with primary funding coming from the Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN). It includes research participation from Queen’s University, University of Toronto and also McGill University, which will be assisting in modelling feedstock availability, identifying and addressing barriers to biojet adoption in co-mingled fuel systems and implementing the IATA Sustainability Meta Standard, a framework standard that has been developed for aviation biofuels.
“We are pleased to support this important initiative by facilitating the logistics involved in the introduction of biojet to an airport’s shared fuel system,” said Teresa Ehman, Director of Environmental Affairs at Air Canada. “Biojet holds the potential to be an important part of our strategy for achieving our longer-term industry goals of carbon neutral growth from 2020 and a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050, relative to 2005 levels. The CBSCI project will contribute significantly to advancing a biojet supply chain in this country.”
Other CBSCI partners include ASCENT (the FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels & Environment co-led by Washington State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology), BioFuelNet, Boeing, Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), IATA, National Research Council, SkyNRG and Transport Canada.
GARDN is a non-profit organisation funded by the Business-Led Network of Centres of Excellence of the Government of Canada and the Canadian aerospace industry. CBSCI is one of a number of GARDN II clean aviation projects earmarked for the 2014-2019 period, which have received a total of C$20 million ($15m).
