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ARS News Service
ARS scientists are working to make a better jet
biofuel and make air travel more sustainable.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Making Air Travel More Sustainable with Soy-Fuel Innovations
For media inquiries contact:
Jan Suszkiw, (202) 734-1176
November 22, 2021
Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Peoria,
Illinois, have developed a way to make a better jet biofuel from
soybean oil.
Fatty acids from soybean oil can be turned into an array of industrial
products normally made from petroleum, including fuel, ink and paints.
One appeal of plant-based products is that they recycle carbon found
in the atmosphere. This makes plants a far more renewable resource
than petroleum and other fossil fuels, which add carbon to the
atmosphere as they're extracted from the earth and used.
However, soy jet fuels developed to date contain insufficient amounts
of "aromatic" compounds, which impart desirable density to fuel and
help keep jet engine seals supple and working properly. The current
shortcoming of aromatic levels in soy jet fuel means less of it can be
blended with conventional jet fuels derived from petroleum, explained
Ken Doll, a research chemist with the
ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in
Peoria.
Blends using biofuels are one of the ways the aviation industry is
working to reduce its "carbon footprint," or total emissions of
greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (which amounted to 905
million tons in
2018).
One approach to making soy jet fuel relies on the use of a precious
metal called ruthenium to catalyze reactions that chemically modify
the structure and properties of the oil's unsaturated fatty acids. The
problem with this approach is that it generates too few aromatic
compounds, noted Doll, with the ARS center's
Bio-oils Research Unit.
To get around the problem, he and fellow ARS scientists
Bryan Moser and Gerhard Knothe replaced ruthenium with iridium as
the chief catalyst in a six-step procedure that they devised and
received a patent in November.
In laboratory-scale experiments, use of the approach on high
oleic-acid soy oil produced jet fuel formulations containing 8 to 35
percent aromatics—a range compatible with conventional jet fuels and
beyond what ruthenium-based methods can achieve.
The advance, which the team recently reported in an online issue of
the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, opens
the door to increased blending of bio- and conventional- jet fuels as
an emissions-cutting measure. The method also generates little or no
naphthalene, a jet fuel component that emits soot upon combustion.
The researchers are now looking for an industry partner to scale-up
the process and evaluate its commercial potential further.
Their research also supports a broader effort at the ARS center in
Peoria to develop new, value-added uses for agricultural commodities
or their waste byproducts, as well as to create sustainable new
methods for processing them. Ideally, for example, the iridium used to
create soy jet fuel could be replaced or combined with an
earth-abundant catalyst like iron to drive down the cost, Doll said.
Other oilseed crops besides soy could also be used, including
non-edible sources such as field pennycress. "We originally used soy
oil because of its high quality, affordability and the refinery
processes that exist. It's also a commodity that we've historically
worked with in Peoria," Doll added. "But any oil that has significant
oleic acid levels would work."
The Peoria team's efforts are also reflective of the U.S Department of
Agriculture's participation in the
Sustainable Aviation Fuels Grand Challenge together with other
federal agencies and stakeholder groups. The challenge is a
multi-faceted government-wide commitment to enabling the production of
35 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel per year by 2050,
using "home-grown" and other renewable sources.
The Agricultural
Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief
scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions
to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in
agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact.
Interested in reading more about ARS
research?
Visit our news archive
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Research Service
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