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The first ever flight powered entirely by unblended renewable fuel is set to take place, after the manufacturers announced a new partnership with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and Agrisoma Biosciences Inc., a Canadian firm with a growing presence in the biofuel feedstock market.
Applied Research Associates (ARA) and Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) have created ReadiJet, a 100 percent drop-in biofuel, which will be tested against ASTM and military specifications. It will be evaluated in ground-based engine tests, before being used in a test flight with the NRC Falcon-20 twin engine jet. The biofuel was produced by ARA, under contract to AFRL, from Agrisoma’s resonance feedstock crop using CLG’s and ARA’s breakthrough Biofuel isoconversion process.
During the test flight, a second aircraft, the National Research Council’s T33 jet, will fly behind the Falcon 20 to measure the emissions of the engine operating on both the ReadiJet biofuel and on conventional petroleum-based aviation fuel. Systems onboard the Falcon 20 will allow NRC’s flight research team to switch back and forth between the two fuel types throughout the flight. These data will be the first of its kind to evaluate biojet fuel emissions of an aircraft engine operating on 100 percent biofuel. NRC’s unique expertise will support Agrisoma Biosciences and CLG/ARA efforts to validate the resonance-based ReadiJet biofuel as a viable and sustainable option for the aviation industry.
Resonance is a member of the mustard oilseed crop family, and was introduced into commercial production in Canada in 2012. Agrisoma Biosciences Inc., a long-time NRC partner, commercialized the oilseed to provide the industry with a sustainable energy feedstock crop: a non-food, industrial oilseed that is well-suited for production in semi-arid areas, making it ideal for producers who can grow the crops on marginal land. “NRC is helping Agrisoma complete the value chain for Resonance-based alternative jet fuels,” said Steven Fabijanski, president and CEO of Agrisoma.
ARA said its catalytic hydrothermolysis (CH) process mimics nature’s way of converting biomass to petroleum crude. While nature’s processes take millions of years to produce petroleum crude, it takes minutes for the CH process to turn plant oils into a high quality crude oil intermediate. According to ARA, the technology is proven in mature pilot systems. A U.S. patent was granted to ARA in 2010 on the CH process.
CLG’s isoconversion catalysts efficiently upgrade the crude oil intermediate produced by the CH reactor into on-specification, finished fuels. The final products are all fungible and nearly identical to petroleumderived fuels, said ARA, adding that ReadiJet fuel is tailored to meet all commercial and military jet fuel specifications.
“The integrated ARA/CLG biofuel isoconversion process and Agrisoma’s resonance feedstock provide a pathway for fulfilling the commercial and military markets’ requirements for alternative fuels at parity with petroleum while spurring opportunities for farmers,” said Chuck Red, ARA’s alternative fuels program lead. “We look forward to this partnership with NRC to help us validate the combination of Canadian developed and grown feedstocks and our processing technology as a leading alternative fuel solution.”
