Alaska Airlines flew a commercial flight on Monday from Seattle to Washington, D.C., using jet fuel that Gevo, a Douglas County biofuels producer, made out of alcohol derived from wood scraps.
“A plane flying on wood — it is a paradigm breaker,” said Pat Guber, CEO of Gevo Inc., which refined cellulosic renewable alcohol into jet fuel in partnership with the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance.
Monday marked the first time a plane full of passengers went cross country using wood-sourced jet fuel. It follows flights Alaska Airlines made this summer using a corn-based jet fuel from Gevo.
Alaska Airlines used a 20 percent blend of the renewable jet fuel, testing it several times to make sure it met all standards, airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said.
Steam locomotives that burned wood were the fastest way to get across the country 150 years ago, before they fell out of favor to coal-powered boilers and then diesel locomotives, which in turn gave way to propeller planes and then modern jets.
Of the various renewable sources, jet fuels made from corn, sugar beets, sugar cane and other starch-rich plants provide the lowest-cost options. If oil prices, now around $45 a barrel reached $65 a barrel, then they could compete on cost with petroleum-based jet fuels, Guber said.
Wood is more expensive to convert, but the technology continues to advance and in some areas it is the most available resource. Plus, it doesn’t generate the same complaints that arise in using edible crops or land that could be used to raise food.
Gevo is agnostic, Guber said. So long as a material can be converted to alcohol, Gevo can make the jet fuel, which can then be blended, up to the federally allowed 30 percent concentration, with petroleum-based jet fuel.
Any renewable jet fuel must be cost-competitive, but several airlines around the globe have committed to making any future growth carbon neutral starting in 2020.
“We set a very ambitious goal to use a sustainable biofuel at one of our airports by 2020,” said Egan. The airline since 2011 has tested a wide variety of renewable jet fuels and together with its partners will publish a white paper on the topic soon.
Just as restaurants boast of locally sourced food, airlines some day could market locally sourced fuels from the plant materials nearby. Egan said part of the marketing message will involve communicating that the renewable jet fuels are safe, something that demonstration flights help prove.
As plants grow, they capture carbon dioxide from the air. Through photosynthesis, plants create sugars convertible into alcohol and then kerosene or jet fuel.
Assuming a processing plant is powered with renewable energy source, it could in theory create a closed carbon loop, Guber said. Demand for jet fuel is expected to increase by about 1 billion gallons a year, and to the degree that increase can come from renewable sources, it will reduce the carbon impact.
