Perspectives for Sustainable Aviation Biofuels in Brazil

Abstract

The aviation industry has set ambitious goals to reduce carbon emissions in coming decades. The strategy involves the use of sustainable biofuels, aiming to achieve benefits from environmental, social, and economic perspectives. In this context, Brazilian conditions are favorable, with a mature agroindustry that regularly produces automotive biofuel largely adopted by Brazilian road vehicles, while air transportation has been growing at an accelerating pace and a modern aircraft industry is in place. This paper presents the main conclusions and recommendations from a broad assessment of the technological, economic, and sustainability challenges and opportunities associated with the development of drop-in aviation biofuels in Brazil. It was written by a research team that prepared the initial reports and conducted eight workshops with the active participation of more than 30 stakeholders encompassing the private sector, government institutions, NGOs, and academia. The main outcome was a set of guidelines for establishing a new biofuels industry, including recommendations for (a) filling the identified research and development knowledge gaps in the production of sustainable feedstock; (b) overcoming the barriers in conversion technology, including scaling-up issues; (c) promoting greater involvement and interaction between private and government stakeholders; and (d) creating a national strategy to promote the development of aviation biofuels.

The Use of Aviation Biofuels as an Airport Environmental Sustainability Measure: The Case of Oslo Gardermoen Airport

“…An instrumental case study is the study of a case, for example, a firm, that provides insights into a specific issue, redraws generalizations, or builds theory [45,46]. The present study was designed around the established theory of sustainable aviation fuels [18,23,47]. The key issues examined in the present study were twofold.…”

“…• Airlines operational costs are substantially dependent upon fuel costs, which typically accounts for around 30% of the total costs [16,18];…”

“…Engine design is a difficulty that needs to be confronted for the commercialization of liquid methane fuels [19,22]. The combustion of liquid methane fuel results in the emission of methane [18], which is a powerful greenhouse gas [41].…”

“…There are also specific plans and projects in countries including the United States of America to produce sustainable aviation biofuel from both household waste and recycled plastic [81] (pp. [18][19].…”

Experimental Study of Spray Characteristics of Kerosene-Ethanol Blends from a Pressure-Swirl Nozzle

“…In order to improve the atomizing quality and reduce the pollutant emissions, engineers devote themselves to changing the fuel properties by using conventional fuels blended with renewable fuels such as biodiesel [6], alcohols [7][8][9], and Jatropha oils [10]. For example, in Brazil and the United States [11,12], alcohol, a renewable resource, was blended with gasoline or diesel in different proportions, and then the mixture was used in the aviation sector. Consequently, there are studies focusing on engine-related fuels including gasoline-ethanol, diesel-ethanol, and jet-A fuel-ethanol mixtures along with the comparison of operational thrust and emissions of pollutants resulting from these fuels.…”