Sustainable Aviation Biofuels: An Interview with Boeing's Olivier Rolland
Olivier Rolland is the Director of Sustainable Aviation Technologies for Boeing’s European research and technology wing. He is a PhD level Chemist with a background in synthetic biology, and has worked for companies including Michelin, Total and Solvay, developing – among other things – bio-based substitutes for petroleum sourced molecules. He was also involved in the development of the first commercial sugar-based aviation fuel produced from fermentation.
"The airlines are still interested. They have flown more than 40,000 flights already, and we are now seeing airports organising themselves and putting in place a supply chain in order to be able to introduce aviation biofuels."
Why are Biofuels Important for the Aviation Industry?
Basically by 2020 the goal is to be carbon neutral [in terms of growth], and by 2050 the objective is to reduce the CO2 emissions by half as compared to the level in 2005. So in order to get there were can count on improvements of aircraft and technology in engines, and we can also count on improvement of the operations. But there will still be a gap to breach in order to achieve these objectives. So we believe that sustainable aviation biofuel, accompanied with the right market measures, will really help in this respect.
So what is sustainable aviation biofuel from this perspective? It is a fuel that is manufactured from biomass, respecting strict sustainability criteria. As opposed to other transport, like ground transportation, where we are seeing the emergence of alternative propulsion such as hybrid technology and electrification, we are not seeing that in the near term future for aviation. So the aviation industry will rely solely on liquid fuels for some time.
What is the status of sustainable aviation fuels, in particular the challenges regarding the uptake of sustainable aviation fuels?
Sustainable aviation biofuel has made tremendous progress in the last decade. From a technology standpoint it works. As of today we have five pathways that have been approved and that are available. From a demand perspective we see that the airlines are still interested. They have flown more than 40,000 flights already, and we are now seeing actually the airports organising themselves and putting in place a supply chain in order to be able to introduce aviation biofuels. Where we are really lagging behind is on the large scale deployment, and that’s because we have an issue with cost competitiveness with kerosene. Sustainable aviation biofuels today are still more expensive than kerosene, especially in a low oil price context.
What can European policy-makers do to help support the development and commercialisation of sustainable aviation fuels?
The European Union should aim to ensure a level playing field with other modes of transportation, especially ground transportation, and doing so is about implementing policy instruments that will really incentivise the market uptake of sustainable aviation biofuels. As mentioned before, we are trying to help in terms of education about our experience, and the challenges that we are facing on the ground, but ideally what we would like to see is a consistent policy that would last - so that a business entrepreneur that wants to be able to invest in sustainable aviation fuels in Europe can rely on that for the long term.
What is Boeing doing in the field of sustainable aviation fuels?
Boeing has been acting as an industry catalyst in order to facilitate the emergence of commercially available sustainable aviation fuel. In this respect Boeing has been working along three axes, the first one being fuel approval. When you want to introduce a new technology for a fuel, you need to make sure that it is safe for the aircraft and for the passengers. In this respect Boeing is deeply involved in technical review of those fuels.
The second axis is an investment in specific projects locally in some areas of the world. One example is our project in the UAE, where we are part of a consortium with Etihad, with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and other stakeholders, where we are combining one of the main issues in this area of the world, which is food security, with sustainable energy. And this project consists of taking seawater to grow fish and shrimps, and with the nutrient enriched water coming out of this aquaculture phase, to grow salt tolerant plants (halophytes), and then mangroves. Today this project is at the hectare level, and is already profitable from the aquaculture phase. So this leaves us with a huge opportunity in order to valorise biomass into sustainable energy, and specifically biofuels for aviation.
And finally the last axis is actually assisting the policy makers in defining and designing the right policy that will enable market uptake of sustainable aviation biofuels.
