Small trees, branches, and woody residues left in forests after cleaning, thinning, and tree felling could hold the key to producing greener rocket fuels used at one of the world’s busiest airports, with researchers revealing that logging residues—found in wood processing facilities across the American South—could create sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) that reduce emissions by 70% above conventional aviation fuels (CAF).
That is according to a new study, Developing a Supply Chain Model for Sustainable Aviation Fuel using logging residues in Georgia, United States, published on Christmas Day, which has, for the first time, developed a supply chain for (SAF) using residues from Georiga timber mills – one of the world’s largest producers of wood pallets.
“This study aims to develop a supply chain model for SAF derived from unutilised logging residues across Georgia, a prominent forestry state in the southern region of the United States,” according to Hosne Ara Akter of the University of Georgia and the lead author of the study. “We employed a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to minimise the total discounted cost of the SAF supply chain using the Ethanol-to-Jet (ETJ) production pathway over ten years of operation.”
The study assessed the demand for sustainable fuels at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport—the corporate headquarters of Delta Airlines, the world’s second-largest airline—using three demand scenarios: meeting high (20%), medium (10%), and low (5%) demand for fuels:
“Under the scenarios, SAF production volumes reached 940 million litres, 1.87 billion litres, and 3.74 billion litres over a ten-year period,” the study found, with production also requiring 9.6, 19.2, and 38.5 million metric tons of logging residues: “The supply chain model suggested 54 biomass processing units (BPUs) and 13 bio-refineries across Georgia under the high demand scenario, 27 BPUs and seven bio-refineries under the medium scenario, and 14 BPUs and four bio-refineries under the low SAF demand scenario.”
Forest residues are a huge market for Sustainable Aviation Fuels.
Last month, Wood Central revealed that the next generation of SAFs could be made from wood and grass, not just waste cooking and palm oil, with South Korean scientists revealing the first example of forest-based SAFs suitable for long-range aviation.
Led by Ha Jeong-Myeong and Yu Chun-Jae, both from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) Clean Energy Research Center, the new SAFs have properties similar to petroleum-based jet fuel – and can run for up to 100 hours, even in the presence of impurities: “SAF can reduce carbon emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional petroleum-based aviation fuel,” Ha said. “This technology expands the resource base for aviation fuel production by enabling the use of non-food resources like wood and grass, and thus moving beyond the current reliance on editable materials.”
- To learn more about the push to use forest and woody waste to create SAF, click here for Wood Central’s special report.
