Aviation biofuel in Brazil: who is doing what?

Brazil has been thrown right into the spotlight of the aviation biofuel efforts with the announcement of Boeing, Embraer and the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP) joining forces to lead the research of sustainable alternate biofuel proposals based on the extraction and manipulation of sugarcane. And there is much more than meets the eye. For starters, the country is home to the only worldwide officially licensed airplane to run exclusively on bio-ethanol, the Embraer Ipanema . In addition to that, major domestic airlines TAM, GOL, Azul and TRIP have teamed up with Algae Biotechnology, Amyris Brazil, the Brazilian Association Jatropha Producers (ABPPM), the Brazilian Aerospace Industry Association (AIAB) and the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry (UNICA), to form the Brazilian Alliance for Biofuels (ABRABA) to jointly promote public and private initiative, seeking to develop and certify sustainable biofuels for aviation in the country.

The fact is that Brazil has already showed the world that it can be a leader in the development of sustainable biofuels with the widespread implementation of bio-ethanol alternative for ground transportation. In 2003, a Government sponsored push introduced the “flex” car in Brazil, which was able to run on both petroleum-based gasoline and bio-ethanol, in any proportion. At that time, Brazil boasted over 30.000 gas stations, which also handled bio-ethanol, meaning that the new generation of cars would be able to run on the alternative biofuel without any operational hiccup. While bio-ethanol has not yet reached the same number of users as gasoline powered-cars, the number of “flex” cars has been rising steadily and several companies (BP, Petrobrás, etc.) are engaged in improving the cost structure of the production of bio-ethanol, in order to make it more competitive in the market and thus more successful with the end-user. Given the enormous success of the introduction of the bio-ethanol alternative for ground transportation in Brazil, there is no reason why this (or any other) alternative could also not be equally successfully in the aviation industry.

The latest version of the Embraer EMB-202 Ipanema, an agricultural aircraft used for aerial application – particularly crop dusting - is the world’s very first 100% ethanol-powered fixed-wing aircraft. The airplane has been in use since 1971 and, due to the abundance and the cost advantage of the bio-ethanol in Brazil, Neiva, a subsidiary of Embraer, along with the local aviation authorities, have produced and certified the world’s first ethanol-powered airplane in 2004.

Embraer's ethanol-powered EMB-202 Ipanema	Azul's designated "green" Embraer 195

Building on the success of the ethanol-powered Ipanema, Embraer announced a partnership with Azul Brazilian Airlines, General Electric and Amyris to evaluate the technical and sustainable aspects of producing and using jet fuel derived from existing sugarcane feedstock in daily flight operations. A first test flight is expected to take place in the first half of 2012 on an Embraer 195 E-Jet provided by Azul which is likely to be dubbed the “Green Eco-Jet”.

Parallel to this initiative, TAM Airlines is also working on an alternative to the standard aviation kerosene and the proposed sugarcane-derived biofuel blend. The carrier which is poised to form the southern hemisphere’s largest airline group alongside LAN Airlines, has already conducted a first flight of an airliner powered by Jatropha-based. On November 22nd. 2010, a TAM CFM International CFM 56-powered Airbus A320-200 operated a 45 minute round-trip flight from Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão Airport using a blend of locally produced Jatropha-based bio-kerosene and conventional QAV, which was processed by UOP (Honeywell Group). The São Paulo-based carrier has set sights on regularly using biofuel on selected flights from 2014 onwards. To do so, TAM has partnered up with JETBIO, Air BP, Airbus, Rio Pardo Bioenergia and other institutions (including the Yale University) to develop a sustainable and commercially viable full-scale implementation of Jatropha-based biofuel in its daily operation.

No frills carrier GOL, Brazil’s second largest airline is also actively engaged in looking for an environmentally friendly fuel alternative. In November 2009, the airline joined the global Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG) which is working on two main preliminary sustainability research projects: the first involves a comprehensive investigation into Jatropha curcas as a sustainable fuel source, and the second, an in-depth look at algae and the associated fuel production processes, to ensure they are in line with strict sustainability guidelines. Both Jatropha curcas and algae have the potential to become viable biomass aviation fuel sources. TAM Airlines is also a member of SAFUG and participates in the research on top of its own initiative.

TAM's Jatropha -based biofuel powered Airbus A320-200	Embraer's "Powered by Sustainable Biofuel" E-Jet testbed

This past September, Embraer and General Electric have also concluded a series of biofuel test flights in Brazil aboard a CF34-8E-powered Embraer 170. One of the aircraft's two engines was powered by a 50/50 blend of camelina-derived hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), provided by UOP, and Jet-A. The purpose of the tests was to benchmark the operational characteristics of the airplane and its engines when powered by HEFA fuel under a broad range of unique flight conditions. These tests are independent of the partnership Embraer has secured with General Electric, Azul and Amyris.

Finally, Brazil has drawn heavyweight industry leadership with the announcement that Boeing, Embraer and the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP) planned to collaborate on long-term aviation biofuels-related research and development. All three parties are leading the development of a detailed report outlining the unique opportunities and challenges of creating a cost-effective, bio-derived, and sustainable jet-fuel production and distributionsystem industry in Brazil. The mission of the aviation biofuels research center which will be created as a result of the new cooperation is to close the technical, commercial, and sustainability gaps needed to enable the creation a new aviation fuel supply chain in the country. Again, the main focus here will be a thorough analysis of the full-scale development and implementation of sugarcane-based aviation biofuel.

Marcelo F. De Biasi – January 2012