On the road to aircraft biofuels

Representatives of FAPESP, Boeing and Embraer held a preparatory meeting for the creation of a research and development center for commercial aviation biofuels.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – Representatives of FAPESP, Boeing and Embraer took part in a preparatory meeting for the creation of a research and development center for commercial aviation biofuels at the FAPESP headquarters in São Paulo on February 29 and March 1. All three institutions will be involved in the R & D center.

An agreement signed by the institutions in October 2011 details the construction of a research center in the State of São Paulo that is focused on the development of sustainable biofuel for aviation and that will be based on the model of the FAPESP Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (CEPIDs), which specialize in developing cutting-edge research projects.

To create the center, a 9-12 month study will first be carried out to examine the social, economic, scientific and technological possibilities, as well as the main challenges, of different technological routes for the development of an aviation biofuel in Brazil and to define the investments that will need to be made by the project’s participants.

The study will be guided by a series of eight public data collection workshops to be held during 2012. The information will be provided by different members of the biofuel production chain and by a Strategic Consulting Council.

The Council will comprise representatives of airlines, biofuel producers and suppliers, and researchers and government representatives, among others, all of whom will be able to play an important role both in the creation and the regulation of this new industry. In one of the last phases of the study, FAPESP will release a special call for proposals for the establishment of the Center.

Aside from the FAPESP, Boeing and Embraer representatives, other participants at the organizational meeting included representatives of companies that will actively participate in the project, including its financing.

During the meeting, participants defined how the first workshop will be carried out. The workshop is scheduled for April 25 and 26 at FAPESP headquarters.

Other workshops are expected to be held in the cities of Piracicaba, Campinas, Brasília and São José dos Campos, at institutions such as the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP).

“We’re finishing the project’s planning phase and making decisions on methodology, budget and contracts in order to begin the workshops,” said Luís Augusto Barbosa Cortez, FAPESP assistant coordinator of Special Programs, to Agência FAPESP.

Cortez, as well as Francisco Emilio Baccaro Nigro, a researcher at the São Paulo State Institute for Technological Research (IPT), are project coordinators.

In Cortez’s opinion, the largest challenges to the development of an aviation biofuel are related to the sustainability question. “The biggest problems have more to do with biomass production,” he affirmed.

“These biofuels will need to be produced at a competitive cost and in a socio-environmentally sustainable manner, with rational use of agricultural resources and in such a way that the living conditions of the people involved in the activity are improved," he said.

On the technology front, the researchers’ greatest challenge will be to develop a biofuel with the same specifications as those of the kerosene currently used in aviation so that it can directly replace it without requiring modifications to aircraft turbines, which follow an international standard.

Raw materials and technologies

Until now, experiments in Brazil involving the development of biofuels, including automobiles and agricultural aviation, for example, were conducted by adapting the motor to the fuel.

In the case of biofuels for commercial aviation, according to researchers involved in the project, it will be necessary to reverse this situation, and adapt the biofuel to the motor. According to Cortez, however, this challenge is still “smaller” than those connected to the agriculture question.

“This technical question about how to fine-tune a biofuel to replace kerosene in commercial aviation isn’t as critical as the questions about biomass production and conversion,” he stated.

Cortez says that different raw materials—aside from sugarcane—and many different technological routes will be studied during the project to arrive at a biofuel that can replace kerosene in commercial aviation.

“We won’t be held hostage by any one technological route. The idea of the project is to have many possibilities because every part of the world has its own agricultural characteristics, tied to different processes,” he said.