University of Tennessee receives $250K FAA grant to study potential regional SAF supply chains

In Tennessee, researchers at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate regional biomass supply chains with regard to their potential for supplying feedstock for domestic fuel production as well as rural economic development, a potential game changer for farming communities.

The agricultural biomass feedstock targeted for analysis, nationally and regionally, includes oilseed cover crops—pennycress, soybean, canola, carinata, and camelina—and softwood logging residues. A supply chain that appears to be economically viable using a pennycress cover crop has been initially evaluated for west central Tennessee with the objective of supplying 40 percent of renewable aviation fuel for Nashville International Airport. The analysis includes evaluation of feedstock availability and supply chain requirements to grow, move, and crush feedstock and to transport fuel to the airport.

Airport regions to be examined are tentatively Nashville and Memphis for the oilseed pathway and Chattanooga, Birmingham, and Atlanta for the logging residues pathway.