No 'silver bullet' for alternative aviation fuels

Speaking at a meeting at the University  of Sydney last night, Qantas’ fuel expert Felicity Thomas clarified the airline’s strategy for approaching biofuels.

Qantas had already announced a collaboration with a US-based company to investigate opportunities for algae-based aviation fuel; and with a second company to investigate how waste-based sustainable fuel might be incorporated into future aviation fuels.

Future options may be even broader, so Qantas is carrying out a detailed global review of clean technology fuel companies’ most promising partnership opportunities.

Amongst the items of interest from Felicity’s presentation were:

* Qantas uses 4.5 billion litres of jet fuel each year, with purchasing contracts at 80 ports.

* Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will perform equal to or better than petroleum-based fuels; and will have a carbon-neutral life cycle.

* SAFs will need to have a minimal impact on biodiversity.

* SAFs cannot displace or compete with food crops.

* SAFs must have a positive socio-economic impact.

* SAFs cannot require any special equipment or handling.

* You need a 50:50 blend with conventional fuel to compensate for the fact that alternative fuels have a higher energy content but are less dense.

* Qantas’ need for an alternative fuel is driven by its exposure to three carbon schemes: Australia, NZ and the European Union.

* The major challenge in Australia is that there’s no spare refining capacity.

* In terms of feedstocks, Qantas is looking favourably at algae at the moment, but sugar cane is also promising.

* There is a cost incentive in the pursuit of alternative fuels in terms of carbon credits, but that needs to be weighed against the premium paid for the alternative fuel. Current trial fuels are three to four times the cost of conventional fuel.

* Qantas is the largest user of liquid fuel in Australia. That is a driver for others to develop the science to provide an appropriate alternative fuel.

* But there will be no ‘silver bullet’.

Qantas is partnered with fuel research programs at the University of Queensland and Curtin University in WA.