Page 8 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 2 - Spring 2023

Airlines present a different dilemma. They produce about 2% of the CO2 emission in the atmosphere and 12% of emissions from all transport sources, according to the Air Transport Action Group. Electronic batteries may be a solution for automobiles, but their added weight limits their utility in aviation.
“All jet fuels today predominantly are made from fossil fuels and the petroleum industry,” said Dr. Rina Singh, executive vice president with Washington D.C.- based advocacy group Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition (AFCC). “The air- lines are one of the worst contributors of emissions in the world. But the airlines are trying to mitigate those emissions by using forest residuals.”
A lot of that innovation is happening in Georgia. Case in point: In 2016, AVAPCO LLC received a $4.7 million grant from the Department of Energy for a pilot pro- gram demonstrating it could turn woody residues into aviation fuel at its refinery in Thomaston. The company was successful and in January received a second grant, totaling $80 million, to fund a larger plant that can produce 1.2 million gallons of jet fuel annually. The plant should be operational by 2025, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Biofuels are a versatile tool because
they have the immediate potential to power our ships, trains, airlines and heavy-duty vehicles — a huge contrib- utor to total carbon emissions — with a significantly reduced carbon footprint,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm in a release announcing the awards. “DOE investments are helping to build out a domestic bioenergy supply chain that increases America’s energy independence, creates jobs, and acceler- ates the adoption of cleaner fuels for our transportation needs.”
Wood-Fueled Flights
Although the focus may now be tighten- ing around converting biomass into avi- ation fuel, these fuels have been blended to be used in flights before. In 2018, an Alaska Airlines flight powered by a 20% blend of sustainable biofuel from Engle- wood, CO-based Gevo, Inc. traveled from Seattle to Washington, D.C.
Gevo used patented technologies to convert cellulosic sugars from wood waste into renewable isobutanol. That was fur- ther converted into Gevo’s Alcohol-to- Jet (ATJ) fuel. The fuel met international ASTM standards, which allowed it to be used safely for commercial flights.
But Gevo isn’t the only company in this
arena. In 2018, a Virgin Atlantic plane using low-carbon fuel from the Lanza- Tech facility in Soperton, GA, flew from Orlando to London, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Other firms are seeking ways to go beyond blended mixes and completely replace current aviation fuel residuals from the forest. This is possible because fuel produced from biomass is chemically identical to aviation fuel.
“That hydrocarbon chain is analogous to petroleum kerosene, which is basically jet fuel,” Singh said.
To produce aviation fuels, waste wood is converted to carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases through a process called gasification, according to Dr. Paul F. Schubert, CEO of Columbia, LA-based Strategic Biofuels. Then the gases are cleared of contaminants and the CO2 is captured for storage. Carbon monoxide is then converted to a paraffin wax and oil through a process called Fischer-Tropsch.
“A standard refinery process [hydro- cracking] is then used to upgrade the wax and oil to the finished fuels,” Schubert said. “However, the hydrocracking con- ditions are substantially milder than used for converting oil because the paraffin wax and oil are extremely pure and easy to process.”
PACKAGING ADVANCEMENTS
Woody biomass isn’t just being developed to power airlines. It’s also being used to reduce the plastics in packages shipped on those planes.
Biomass can also reduce packaging manufacturers’ reliance on latex materials, coating on the packaging and, maybe most notably, on polystyrene — a lightweight and brittle material used in packaging. It breaks into tiny pieces that populate landfills and can scatter in the wind to contaminate the environment, including waterways. But it’s also cheap, which is why it’s difficult to replace.
Lokendra Pal, Ph. D., the EJ Woody Rice Associate Pro- fessor in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at NC State University, thinks sawdust, by virtue of being a byproduct, can provide a relatively inexpensive replacement that’s better for the environment. His team is working on a way to grind
and mix sawdust
with residues to form a powder, which
is combined with
a binder before it’s cast or molded into
an item, according to WRAL in Raleigh, NC.
“We have been workin
g
the last three to four yea
r
actually valorizing the sawdust into
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a
r
s
i
n
s
i
n
a bio-product, specifically making a very lightweight com- posite that can be used to replace the polystyrene,” Pal said.
As researchers work on packaging products, they must keep Amazon in mind. The e-commerce giant demands lightweight, robust packages that can be left outside of door- ways, Pal said.
“We’re looking at how we utilize the biomass to continue to make packaging smarter, lightweight and durable,” Pal said.
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