Govt's Big Plans For Cleaner Aviation Turbine Fuel Face A String Of Hurdles: Report

The project run by the Indian Institute of Petroleum, a laboratory of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, is India’s attempt at shaking up the $155 billion global biofuels industry

Indian Institute of Petroleum has tied up with the country’s biggest airline, IndiGo, to deploy its home-grown fuel. ( Image Source :Getty )

The central government is working on a jet fuel it hopes can help clean up the smog hanging over India's big cities, as reported by Bloomberg. On a sprawling 300 acre tea estate, in Dehradun where leopards and deer can be spotted, scientists are working with partners, including Boeing Co. to get global approvals for their biofuel, which is made from waste cooking oil and the seeds of plants like pongamia and jatropha that aren’t consumed.

According to the report, the project run by the Indian Institute of Petroleum, a laboratory of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, is India’s attempt at shaking up the $155 billion global biofuels industry, which has long been dogged by criticism that crop-based alternatives like ethanol can trigger indirect emissions by expanding farmland and driving up food prices for the world’s poorest people.

The institute has tied up with the country’s biggest airline, IndiGo, to deploy its home-grown fuel. However, its researchers are facing a string of hurdles. Not only is the new technology for the production of the fuel more expensive than traditional jet fuel, but there are difficulties collecting sufficient raw materials, hampering scientists’ ability to produce it on a wide enough scale to be commercially viable.

Salil Gupte, president of Boeing India, said that building the infrastructure needed to transport and store the sustainable aviation fuel will take “significant” investments.

“At this point, it’s more about first proving that we can do the fuel locally and that’s what we’re engaged on with IIP,” Gupte said. “The infrastructure to build out the availability of jet aviation fuel has taken decades and decades, so we’re going to have to either modify or build over that system an equally convenient capability for sustainable aviation fuel.”

While they work on boosting scale, the Dehradun scientists are also seeking approval for the fuel from ASTM International, the Pennsylvania-based organisation that develops and publishes standards for products and services globally.

According to Boeing, it’s presently helping review and support the certification process for the aviation fuel samples from Dehradun. Airbus SE, meanwhile, is studying the demand and challenges of sustainable aviation fuel in India with Paris-based airport operator Groupe ADP among others to prepare a business case for the fuel’s local production.

One advantage the fuel would have over other alternatives being used in the US is that it doesn’t have to be blended with regular jet fuel and can potentially be used as is, according to Anil Sinha, senior principal scientist at the institute.

“In the US, we’re still giving an option to food crops, and for that reason, I think India and Europe are ahead of what the US is proposing,” said Nikita Pavlenko, fuels team lead at the Washington-based International Council on Clean Transportation. At the same time, India’s strategy is harder to implement and more expensive, Pavlenko said.

The Centre has given its technology to the government-owned Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., and it plans to develop a plant with a capacity of 20,000 liters a day by 2024 to commercialise the indigenous fuel. But four years after SpiceJet Ltd. operated India’s first biofuel flight, the adoption of sustainable aviation fuel hasn’t taken off.

India also doesn’t have the supply chains needed to gather feedstock in far off places. Anjan Ray, the institute’s director, estimates India has the potential to gather 3.5 million tons of oilseeds, but the actual collection is less than 500,000 tons annually.

For the indigenous biofuel, much hinges on a push by the government. IndiGo, which has committed to blending 10 per cent sustainable aviation fuel by 2030, said in a statement that the government should give tax benefits and subsidies to encourage its use. India needs to build transportation, storage, and airport infrastructure for blending of sustainable aviation fuel, it said.