Boeing Launches Partnership to Develop Biomass Fuel Standards

 Boeing and a Swiss university launched a group today that will work to lower certification costs related to sustainable biofuels and bring together different sustainability requirements.

The Sustainable Biomass Consortium plans to collaborate with groups that are implementing voluntary standards or regulatory requirements for biomass used to make jet fuel and energy.

The consortium was created by Boeing and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. It's working closely with the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, which was created by the EPFL and just recently began its own certification system for biofuels.

The roundtable's sustainability standard is being used by the consortium to set regional benchmarks based on aviation industry biofuel projects.

A number of aviation companies have tested biofuels, such as Virgin Airlines with algae-based fuel, Air New Zealand with jatropha-based fuels, and Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines, which both used mixtures of different biofuels.

With different companies taking up initiatives all over the world, the aviation industry has a vested interest in working with other groups to make standards and regulations follow the same principles.

Research by the consortium will begin in April, 10 projects are already in the works, and over the next two years the group plans to be working in Africa, Australasia, China, the European Union, Latin America and North America.

The consortium defines sustainable biofuels as coming from biomass that provides life cycle carbon emission reductions, do not displace food crops, don't compete for fresh water and don't cause habitat loss or unintended land use changes.

_{Boeing plane - CC license by lrargerich}