Flight plan: 14 practical steps towards commercial aviation biofuels now

POLICY PRIORITIES

10. Create longer-term policies that enable investment and production. Create a stable longterm policy environment, which is critical for the development of the renewable jet fuel industry and encouraging investment.

11. Level the playing field. The fossil fuels industry has relied on and continues to receive government subsidies, policies, and support that foster growth. The aviation biofuels industry should be afforded similar opportunities for growth. For example, allow master limited partnerships (MLP) for renewable jet fuel, which are currently limited to the conventional petroleum industry.

12. Fully fund the Defense Production Act Title III for the production of biofuels. Government action to develop new sources of energy has historically been an effective approach. The U.S. government and in particular the U.S. Navy has been instrumental throughout its history in transitioning from wind to coal to nuclear energy. The U.S. Government’s effort to support aviation and marine advanced biofuels is important, and the Defense Production Act Title III program sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Navy should be fully funded.

13. Build regional demonstration facilities supported by municipal and state policy. In the short term, focus biofuel development on smaller facilities that will not exhaust local feedstock supply. Simultaneously, leverage coordinated municipal, state, and national policies to maximize opportunity. For example, allow state bonds to be sold to support the construction of production facilities.

The Digest’s Take.

Policy is unstable in the biggest way — the brouhaha over the Renewable Fuel Standard setting a new record for ways that policy instability can shut down investor interest. There”s been nearly equal turbulence in using the Defense Production Act to commercialize biofuels early — though the DoD did bust through and award $16M in grants towards parity-cost, drop-in, non-food biofuels.

The hold-up being, primarily, feedstock costs, the Digest has proposed a Strategic Naval Feedstock Reserve to ensure access to affordable feedstock — as the nation does with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Notable milestones and novel ideas to date

The Battle of the Beltway: DoD awards $16M towards parity-cost, drop-in, non-food biofuels. DoD goes forward, after internal wrangle, with advanced biofuels program via $16M phase 1 investment — with industry cost share, project totals $33M: aims for sub-$4, drop-in military biofuels. The DoD will award three contracts totaling $16 million to Emerald Biofuels, Natures BioReserve and Fulcrum Biofuels for drop-in military biofuels.

Affordable Naval biofuel: First comes the feedstock. Pain at the pump? Try chatting with biofuels producers about the joys of $8 corn, $0.48 per pound soybean oil, $0.35 per pound waste greases and $0.20 per pound sugar prices. Frankly, were we to have prices at half these levels, there would be a lot more excitement in financial circles about investing in biofuels. Why not designate a Naval Agricultural Reserve? What about something similar to the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, but with a twist: government money comes with the caveat that the resulting feedstock must be sold at an affordable, contracted price to the military or aviation biofuels industry.

In today’s Digest we explore more of MASBI’s 14 practical steps to accelerate aviation biofuels to commercialization — and the state of play in sustainability. Lots of charts on costs, approval pathways, waiting times, financing and feedstock availability. Plus, links to the full MASBI report and the executive summary, and The Bottom Line, by visiting the page links below.