Climate-positive and carbon-efficient bio jet fuels, are they possible? – a systematic evaluation of potential and costs

About the project

Combining aviation fuel production with CCS can eliminate the climate impact from aviation.

Producing biofuels from biomass means that only part of the carbon atoms from the biomass end up in the product. The rest of them are often emitted as carbon dioxide directly in the production process. This does not only mean that the climate benefits from biofuels decrease and a carbon debt is created, a connection that often in focus in discussions about the sustainability of biofuels. It also tends to make the use of biomass inefficient, compared to a case in which all biogenic carbon atoms were to be included in products replacing for example fossil fuels.

Future conversion technologies and use of biomass are expected to require high carbon utilization and/or negative CO2 emissions to be legitimate and competitive in the long run. To capture and store a part of the carbon in biomass raw material also opens up for the possibility of producing CO2 negative bio jet fuel that could compensate for non-CO2 climate impacts that constitute an additional climate impact due to emissions at high altitudes. This could help to reach flight transports with potentially little or no total climate impact.

This project makes a systematic evaluation of the possibilities of increasing utilization of biogenic carbon of the raw material through an increased yield of carbon in bio jet fuel and/or storage of carbon. Various technologies are evaluated for carbon efficiency, climate and costs, with/without CO2 capture and use (BECCU) or storage (BECCS).

The overall project goal is to develop a knowledge and decision basis to support the development towards a sustainable aviation sector with regard to both R&D and commercial implementation technology. The project is an extension of the ongoing project Future-proof biofuels through improved utilization of biogenic carbon – carbon, climate and cost efficiency (K3), that studies road transport.

Results from the study were presented (in Swedish) in a webinar on 24 March 2022: