Objective

The objective of the European Advanced Biofuels Flight Path is to define a roadmap with clear milestones in order to achieve a target of 2 million tons of sustainable biofuels used in European civil aviation by 2020.

Description

The European Advanced Biofuels Flight Path was launched in June 2011 by the European Commission, in close coordination with Airbus, leading European airlines (Lufthansa, AirFrance/KLM and British Airways) and European biofuel producers (Neste Oils, Biomass Technology Group, UPM, Chemtex Italia and UOP).

The "Biofuels Flight path" is a shared and voluntary commitment by its members to support and promote the production, storage and distribution of sustainably produced drop-in biofuels for use in aviation. It also targets establishing appropriate financial mechanisms to support the construction of industrial "first of a kind" advanced biofuel production plants.

More specifically, the action focuses on the following  issues:

1. Facilitate the development of standards for drop-in biofuels and their certification for use in commercial aircrafts;
2. Work together with the full supply chain to further develop worldwide accepted sustainability certification frameworks
3. Agree on biofuel take-off arrangements over a defined period of time and at a reasonable cost;
4. Promote appropriate public and private actions to ensure the market uptake of paraffinic biofuels by the aviation sector;
5. Establish financing structures to facilitate the realization of 2G biofuel projects;
6. Accelerate targeted research and innovation for advanced biofuel technologies, and especially algae.
7. Take concrete actions to inform the European citizen of the benefits of replacing kerosene by certified sustainable biofuels.

Partners

Airbus, AirFrance/KLM, Biomass Technology Group, British Airways, , European Commission (DG Energy), Lufthansa, Neste Oils, UOP, UPM & Chemtex Italia

Achievements to date

Five workshops have been organised from May 2011 to June 2012 to:

• review the progress and R&D activities on fuel pathways;
• discuss the role of a European Civil Aviation Network to support the deployment of alternative fuels in aviation;
• analyse financial mechanism to support advanced biofuel flagship plants and incentives for the use of biofuels in aviation.

A benchmark between 19 value chains was organised beginning of 2012 to assess their maturity level with view to deployment.

Contact information

​http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/biofuels/flight_path_en.htm