Researchers in California say they've successfully converted sugarcane biomass into jet fuel in a process that can reduce greenhouse gas emission by as much as 80 percent.
As petroleum prices fluctuate and talk of shortages increases, scientists have increasingly invested time, effort and funds into creating alternatives to petroleum-based fuels.
A wide variety of biomass-derived fuels have been developed and are in use, but a usable jet fuel — with its much more stringent requirements than almost any other fuel — has eluded researchers.
Now a research team from the University of California, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has described a technique to produce a fuel that meets the requirements for jet aircraft.
"We've identified a new route of chemistry with its source from sugars in sugarcane plus some of the so-called waste material called bagasse," says study co-author Alexis Bell from UC Berkeley.
"We show in this paper how we can put these components together to make jet diesel and lubricants."
For any fuel to be suitable for jets, it must include no oxygen, which adds mass without providing any additional power.
It must also not thicken up at the -40 degrees Fahrenheit encountered at the altitudes at which modern jet aircrafts fly.
Finally, it must also be formulated with a certain degree of lubricity so that it does not result in wear to the high-speed turbines inside jet engines.
The new fuel meets all those requirements, the researchers say.
Sugarcane is an ideal source of biomass for a new jet fuel because it can be grown on land considered agriculturally-marginal and thus would not displace or disrupt the growing of food crops, the researchers note.
Some other possible biomass source crops for a sugar-derived jet fuel could be less suitable, Bell acknowledges.
"If, for example, we were to use sugar beet instead of sugarcane then there would be a potential conflict over fuel versus food," he says. "By using sugarcane, particularly in Brazil, on land that is not used for agriculture, we escape that conundrum."
BP, which is sponsoring the work of Bell's team, has extensive sugarcane plantations in Brazil for producing ethanol for use in flex-fuel cars.
The jet fuel created from sugarcane produces only a fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions in jet exhaust seen in the burning of usual fossil jet fuels or even ethanol-based fuels, the researchers say.
