Oilseeds to biodiesel and renewable jet fuel: an overview of feedstock production, logistics, and conversion

Abstract

Diesel and jet fuel contribute to ~22–27% and ~ 8–13% of the total energy used in the US transportation sector, producing ~25% and ~ 9% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from this sector, respectively. Biobased alternatives, such as biodiesel and renewable jet fuel (RJF) produced from oilseeds, have lower GHG emissions than their petroleum counterparts, are renewable in nature, and support energy security. Thus, the objective of this review was to analyze the information on different oilseed types and characteristics along with their production, harvest and post‐harvest operations; oilseeds conversion to biodiesel and RJF along with their properties and uses; and their cost and environmental status in the USA. More than 80% of the feedstock currently used for biodiesel production in the USA consists of edible oilseeds, including soybean, corn, and canola. Carinata and pennycress are inedible oilseeds that are promising feedstock for biodiesel and RJF production. The biodiesel and RJF produced from oilseeds have similar density, calorific value and cetane number while having lower acid value and sulfur content compared to their petroleum counterparts. At the current state of technology, the retail prices for biodiesel (B20) are 1.0–1.4 times, and RJF are 3–4 times higher than their petroleum counterparts. However, GHG emissions of oilseed‐based biodiesel and RJF are 37–92% and 32–121% lower than their petroleum counterparts, respectively. The economic competitiveness of oilseed‐based biofuels production and use could be improved by enhancing oilseed traits and optimizing field operations, which would further reduce the emissions from the transportation sector. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Biofuel Discount Rates and Stochastic Techno-Economic Analysis for a Prospective Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) Sustainable Aviation Fuel Supply Chain

“…Companies producing SAF include Alt Air Paramount (acquired by World Energy), Neste Oyj, Gevo Inc., Virent Inc., and Velocys PLC. (Trejo-Pech et al, 2019;Khanal and Shah, 2021;Tanzil et al, 2021). Gevo Inc. is chosen as one of the companies to include in the sample of firms to analyze in this study because, unlike the other aforementioned firms, Gevo is a publicly traded company listed in a US stock exchange market.…”

“…One of the current challenges is to produce SAF at prices competitive with fossil-based jet fuel. SAF cost of production is estimated around three times higher than conventional jet fuel cost (Khanal and Shah, 2021), particularly high when crops that are demanded in food markets are used as feedstock to produce SAF. Promising conversion technologies and the use of dedicated energy crops-low production cost crops grown for energy production purposes mainly and not for food-as feedstock are likely to reduce the SAF vs. fossil jet fuel price gap and accelerate SAF adoption.…”

“…Policies such as the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization's Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation are mandating reductions in carbon emissions for commercial aviation (ICAO, 2021). Taking 2005 as the baseline, the industry is expected to reduce 50% of carbon emissions by 2050 (Hileman et al, 2013;Khanal and Shah, 2021;Tanzil et al, 2021). Factors such as improved fuel consumption and infrastructure are important, but the use of biomass derived, or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is projected to be the most important factor driving carbon reduction in aviation (Wang et al, 2019;Khanal and Shah, 2021).…”

“…Taking 2005 as the baseline, the industry is expected to reduce 50% of carbon emissions by 2050 (Hileman et al, 2013;Khanal and Shah, 2021;Tanzil et al, 2021). Factors such as improved fuel consumption and infrastructure are important, but the use of biomass derived, or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is projected to be the most important factor driving carbon reduction in aviation (Wang et al, 2019;Khanal and Shah, 2021). SAF is a substitute or complementary product for fossil jet fuels, produced from a variety of feedstocks including waste organics, agricultural residues, and crops cultivated for human food consumption (Air BP, 2021;Eswaran et al, 2021;SkyNRG, 2021).…”

“…Tanzil et al (2021) found that hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) is the most competitive current technology for SAF production compared to five lignocellulosebased technologies evaluated. While SAF production volume in the US is still limited, several biorefineries are producing it at demonstration, pilot, and commercial scale (Trejo-Pech et al, 2019;Khanal and Shah, 2021;Tanzil et al, 2021). One of the current challenges is to produce SAF at prices competitive with fossil-based jet fuel.…”