Interesting article on the cost of SAF and the difficulties that airlines are having meeting their decarbonization goals.
Often times these facilities are feedstock limited, and these converted refineries have some pretty significant technical challenges in processing. I am sure another factor is simple supply and demand. Some interesting information regarding efforts in Brazil around animal waste-to-fuel.
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Brazilian meatpacker is supplying animal waste from its operations abroad for the production of renewable aviation fuels and is studying a similar initiative in Brazil through the Friboi brand.
According to JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, in two years 1.2 MMt of beef tallow and pork lard from its units in the U.S., Canada and Australia have already been directed to the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other renewable fuels.
In Brazil, Friboi began studies to test the feasibility of supplying animal waste for local production of SAF, which is seen as an important solution for commercial aviation to reduce its carbon emissions.
"By reusing animal waste, we contribute to the environment and help this critical sector in its decarbonization process," JBS's global chief sustainability officer, Jason Weller, said in a statement. The initiative, he added, reinforces the company's commitment to responsible waste management and circular economy.
JBS is also studying the feasibility of producing renewable fuel for ships as an alternative to bunker oil through Biopower, its company focused on manufacturing biodiesel. Biopower has three Brazil plants for the production of biofuel from organic waste from cattle processing.
JBS is controlled by J&F, a holding company owned by Brazilian billionaire brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista. It has been seeking to expand its initiatives in sustainable energy.
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I fully support waste-to-fuel processes, but often times these end up being more carbon intensive than the original "hydrocarbon" production due to the amount of contaminants that need to be dealt with.
I suspect, that this process would be similar to renewable natural gas or biogas, where the process can require high energy inputs and the processing is complex because of the number of contaminants that must be removed.
It would be great to see the heat and material balance around one of these converted refineries, including the total carbon balance of the process. The projects that I was involved with in the past were actually more carbon intensive as compared to other traditional alternatives.
#biofuels #SAF
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3moSounds great and that’s even better reason why I have been driving solely Nokian Tyres for the last 25 years without any kind of problem 👍 Thanks for that and quality of your tires 😊