Production, Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analysis of Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Agro-Forestry Residues

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The aviation industry is one of the fastest growing modes of transportation sector with an expected annual increase rate of 5% in air traffic until 2030. Currently, the aviation industry is responsible for 12% of the CO2 emissions from various modes of transport sectors and it is expected to grow at a 4.1% of compound annual growth rate near future. Therefore, to address the climate change concerns, the Air Transport Action Group has set ambitious goals to stabilize the net CO2 emissions of the aviation sector by developing a carbon-neutral aviation fuel that is considered a promising alternative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this proposal bridges the gap of producing less carbon-intensive sustainable aviation drop-in fuels from agricultural and forestry-derived feedstock along with biogasoline and biodiesel. Several technologies are in practice to produce bio-jet fuels, among them hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids technology are more mature although they has high production costs. Recent studies revealed that hydrotreated depolymerized cellulosic jet technologies such as hydrothermal liquefaction followed by upgrading have shown lower production costs, high yield, and modest capital costs relative to other technologies. Thus, the current proposal will investigate the production of bio-jet fuel via hydrothermal liquefaction followed by biocrude extraction and fractionation, blending and co-processing via catalytic hydrodeoxygenation, catalytic cracking, and isomerization to produce aviation fuels. The main objective of hydrodeoxygenation is to remove the oxygen from the biocrudes and enhance oxidative stability and calorific value. Hydrochar will be used as catalyst support that is produced during the co-hydrothermal liquefaction to develop hydrodeoxygenation catalysts. After investigating the bio-jet fuel production pathway, techno-economic feasibility and environmental impacts will be studied for scale-up and commercialization. The outcomes of this project will offer the best solutions to our industrial partner Tidewater Renewables in developing sustainable aviation fuel production process. Besides, this proposal will enable other Canadian renewable energy companies to improve their profit margin for bio-jet fuel production.