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How Can Alternative Jet Fuels Be Integrated into the Airport Setting? 37
· Federal and state government programs: The federal government and many states offer
incentives for the development of alternative fuels. The Department of Commerce keeps a
list of those programs that could apply to alternative jet fuel or avgas projects (DOC 2011).
The Department of Energy maintains a full list of incentives for all sorts of alternative fuel pro-
grams as well as a map of existing demonstrator programs (DOE 2011b). The final rules for
implementing the August 2011 three-agency initiative should be consulted. These rules are
expected to specify how co-investments in projects by other public- and private-sector entities
will be evaluated, making these rules particularly important.
· Possible price supports for growers and price collars for buyers and sellers, similar to those
available for food crops (USDA 2010a).
· Department of Defense (DOD) policies involving alternative fuel commitments such as the
plan to have 50% of continental U.S. military jet fuel consumption sourced from synthetic
fuels blends (Andrews 2009).
· Tax credits such as the one-dollar-per-gallon tax credit for biofuels (currently renewed on a
year-by-year basis) (American Fuels 2010).
Energy policy: How can the energy policy elements of an alternative jet fuel project be
evaluated?
"Worksheet 3: Energy Policy Considerations" in Section 5.2.3 can be used to evaluate energy
policy elements and corresponding sources of support. After checking the appropriate boxes in
the worksheet, the following evaluation guide is recommended for grading the different options:
· Green: All or most policies are applicable. (Most or all boxes checked are in the "Applicable"
column.)
· Yellow: Some policies are applicable and most may be applicable. (Some boxes checked are in
the "Applicable" column, most boxes checked are in "May Be Applicable" column, and some
boxes checked are in "Not Applicable" column.)
· Red: No policies are applicable. (Most boxes checked are in "Not Applicable" column.)
After completing the grading, fill in the appropriate circle in the "Green," "Yellow," or "Red"
column in the "Energy policy" row of "Worksheet 6: Evaluation Summary" in Section 5.2.6.
Note: This evaluation is intended to reflect the possible strength of support from a number of
entities and their policies on alternative jet fuels for individual project options. A grading of red
does not mean that a project is not viable. Such a grading would only indicate that the project
does not appear to benefit from the potential support of the entities listed in the worksheet. This
may put a given project at a disadvantage compared to other projects that may get a higher grade
in energy policy considerations.
3.5.2 Environmental
As discussed in Section 2.4, alternative jet fuels have two principal potential environmental
benefits. First, the overall life-cycle GHG footprint may be lower than for conventional fuel. Sec-
ond, particulate emissions such as PM2.5 may be lower. Reductions in NOx have been docu-
mented for alternative ground fuels (relative to diesel fuel), but there is no current evidence to
suggest that the same benefit extends to alternative jet fuels. Information on how to evaluate the
GHG and particulate matter benefits of alternative jet fuel options is presented in the following.
How should the life-cycle GHG footprint of alternative jet fuels be determined?
As discussed in Sections 2.4 and E.1, the life-cycle GHG footprint of alternative jet fuels should
be determined with a suitable LCA methodology. To date, there is no one methodology that is
universally accepted; however, materials produced by the Department of Defense (Allen et al.
2009) and PARTNER (Stratton, Wong, and Hileman 2010) offer sufficient guidance and are
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38 Guidelines for Integrating Alternative Jet Fuel into the Airport Setting
recommended for a first-order analysis. Consultation with outside experts is recommended for
a more in-depth study.
In terms of targets for desired life-cycle GHG footprints of alternative jet fuels, the airport
should be aware of the needs of potential users and set reasonable expectations. The development
of alternative jet fuel will be incremental. As technologies develop and feedstocks mature, it is
expected that the life-cycle GHG footprint of these fuels will improve. Thus, supporting produc-
tion of alternative jet fuels that achieve even only modest reductions in the near term is important
to spur development of fuels achieving larger reductions in the future.
What questions should be considered in this part of the evaluation?
Questions that should be considered in this part of the evaluation are as follows:
1. What is the estimated life-cycle GHG footprint of the alternative jet fuels being considered in
the option?
2. What is the overall net footprint of the blend of alternative jet fuel and conventional fuel,
given that alternative jet fuels have only been certified as blends?
3. What is the range of uncertainty in the answers to (1) and (2)?
These questions should be answered with the latest available official estimates of life-cycle
GHG footprints. As mentioned previously, it is recommended that outside experts be engaged
to conduct this analysis since there is still no one methodology that is universally accepted. A
sample calculation is as follows:
Alternative fuel: Coal and switchgrass to FT fuel, with CCS
Estimated life-cycle GHG footprint: 53.056.9 g CO2e/MJ, relative to 87.5 g CO2e/MJ for con-
ventional petroleum-based jet fuel (data from Table 4 in Section 5.1). (Where g CO2e is grams
CO2 equivalent; MJ is megajoules.)
Estimated mix of alternative and conventional fuels: 50/50
Resulting overall footprint of fuel mix, relative to 100% conventional case:
relative footprint (low) = [(0.5 × 53.0) + (0.5 × 87.5)] / (1.0 × 87.5) = 70.25 / 87.5 = 0.80
relative footprint (high) = [(0.5 × 56.9) + (0.5 × 87.5)] / (1.0 × 87.5) = 72.20 / 87.5 = 0.83
Thus, the proposed alternative fuel at the proposed level of mixture with conventional jet fuel
is estimated to reduce the overall life-cycle GHG footprint of the fuel being used by between
17% and 20%.
How can the life-cycle GHG footprint of alternative jet fuels be evaluated?
The net environmental evaluation of the relative life-cycle GHG effects may be done using the
following rating:
· Green--Use this rating if the alternative jet fuel is likely to achieve life-cycle GHG reductions.
· Yellow--Use this rating if the alternative jet fuel may achieve life-cycle GHG reductions.
· Red--Use this rating if the alternative jet fuel is not likely to achieve life-cycle GHG reductions.
After completing the grading, fill in the appropriate circle in the "Green," "Yellow," or "Red"
column in the "Life-cycle GHG" row of "Worksheet 6: Evaluation Summary" in Section 5.2.6.
How should the local air quality benefits of alternative jet fuels be determined?
As with life-cycle GHG, outside experts should be consulted to perform a detailed calculation
of PM2.5 benefits. A simple methodology is presented in the following to perform a first-order
approximation estimate.
