Illinois research, resources provide ability for sustainable aviation fuel production

LISLE, Ill. — Illinois has the resources to play an important role in the development of sustainable aviation fuel.

“Illinois is the No. 3 in ethanol production at 1.87 billion gallons,” said Vijay Singh, founder professor in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois.

“That can produce 1 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel and we can do more because 14% of the corn leaves our state,” said Singh during a presentation at the Leading the Way: Sustainable Aviation Fuel in Illinois conference hosted by the Illinois Corn Growers Association, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and Intersect Illinois.

“About two-thirds of the soybeans leave our state, so we could convert another 900 million gallons which would total close to 2 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel produced in our state and that is 10% of the U.S. SAF demand,” said Singh, who is also a distinguished professor of bioprocessing in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the U of I.

“Illinois has all the elements for start-up companies to build their facilities in our state,” he said. “You need innovation and we can be the pipeline for innovation.”

In addition, feedstocks are needed and Illinois grows a lot of corn and soybeans.

“We have a lot of water available which is required for processing, electricity prices are very competitive and we have excellent intermodal transportation,” Singh said.

An exciting research project at the U of I is working to store carbon as vegetative lipids, the university professor said.

“The oil that comes from soybeans can be put into bioenergy crops like sorghum, canes and miscanthus,” he said. “These crops are not resource intensive and they can be grown on marginal lands to produce vegetative lipids or oils that can be used for sustainable aviation fuel.”

One acre, Singh said, of these bioenergy crops can deliver the same amount of carbohydrates that come from corn or the same amount of lipids from soybeans.

“We’re creating a new feedstock that can be used for sustainable aviation fuel,” he said.

Researchers at the U of I are also using precision fermentation.

“This is the ability to modify microorganisms to produce a molecule with very specific attributes in a short period of time,” Singh said.

“We can take dextrose and ferment it using microorganisms to produce lipids,” he said. “These lipids can be used for sustainable aviation fuel.”

Research Work

“Things are drastically changing because we’re putting new things inside of engines,” said Tonghun Lee, Bei Tse Chao and May Chao professor in the U of I Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. “For a long time, we’ve had petroleum-based fuel which has variability, but not much.”

Documentation is important for new fuels for jet engines.

“The FAA has initiated a program to accumulate data on different kids of jet fuels,” Lee said. “The World Fuel Survey is happening this year because this is not just a U.S. problem because our jets fly to other places and refuel.”

Research work is focused on how fuels burn in combustors.

“It looks different for different sustainable aviation fuels,” Lee said. “The fuels burn well, but it’s at the edges of operation where it becomes tricky.”

For example, if there is an event, the fire goes out and the engine has to be restarted.

“We have to understand these things better as we move towards sustainable aviation fuel,” Lee said. “What’s being produced and the people who are testing it have to progress hand in hand.”

Key Drivers

“My interest is in sustainable design, so if you tell me you want to take a feedstock and turn it into a biofuel, we want to know the key drivers that matter,” said Jeremy Guest, associate professor in the U of I Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“To get the number of carbon intensity, we have to make hundreds of assumptions and most we feel pretty good about,” Guest said. “We want to understand what we need to do to break down the carbon intensity or cost to a target level.”

Often the researchers are comparing something at a bench scale to something that has been around for decades and has economies of scale.

“When we look at bench scale numbers and compare them to an established industry, it never looks good,” Guest said. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t look good 10 years from now and it’s not worth investing in.”

The U of I researchers developed BioSTEAM.

“Anybody can use it, but it is mostly tailored to companies for cost analysis of biorefineries,” Guest said. “You can take any piece of the life cycle and use different combinations of models for early stage technology evaluation.”

Researchers have used the open-source software to work with companies that are developing a new catalyst or a new separation process.

“We can help guide research and development,” Guest said.

“Carbon intensity of the feedstock is critically important to the final carbon intensity of the fuel so we can do field scale carbon intensity estimates,” he said. “We can identify the most impactful opportunities to reduce carbon intensity.”

Guest stressed the importance of informed decision-making.

“We want to do research that’s relevant and helps people make decisions,” he said. “If you design a biorefinery, we can characterize the costs, compare them to market prices and characterize the carbon intensity.”