Search
RISE logo

Researchers aim to test-fly Swedish biofuel by 2021

06 December 2018, 12:49

The Swedish Energy Agency has granted funding for a pilot study that within a couple of years will hopefully lead to the production and testing of aviation fuel based on Swedish forest residues – as well as testing the fuel on commercial flights in Sweden. The pilot study is intended to facilitate and reduce the risks of Sweden’s first commercial facility for the manufacture of aviation biofuel based on forestry waste products.

The project’s stakeholders span the entire value chain and include airlines SAS and BRA, dutch sustainable aviation fuels specialists SkyNRG, Ineratec and Arvos Schmidtsche Schack from Germany, Smurfit Kappa Piteå, Sveaskog, Fly Green Fund, Svebio and Luleå University of Technology. The project is also supported by KLM and Swedavia, owner of Sweden’s basic airport infrastructure. RISE will be participating and contributing both engineering expertise regarding the conversion of the existing biofuel pilot facility in Piteå, as well as techno-economic analysis of the concept.

“It will be very exciting to work on the demonstration and evaluation of this gasification-based technology, which is among those with the greatest short and long-term potential for contributing to local production of aviation biofuels in Sweden. We are striving to quickly create the right conditions for commercial production by minimising risk for investors. Both the technical demonstration along the full value chain and a thorough techno-economic analysis will contribute to this end,” says Erik Furusjö, RISE project manager.

The pilot study will run from December 2019 and, among other things, will involve a technical study of manufacturing technology for a possible demonstration project at LTU Green Fuels (a pilot plant for the gasification of biofuels), fuel certification, a study of the biofuel distribution chain’s ability to efficiently deliver to Swedish airports, planning in-flight field tests, and investigating how a business plan might be designed to support the commercialisation of the manufacturing technology.

RISE conducts a number of projects for sustainable aviation, including the innovation cluster Fossil-free Aviation 2045 and a project to develop a regional value chain for aviation biofuel in Småland.

For further information, please contact:

Erik Furusjö, senior researcher, RISE: +46 (0)76 876 72 33, erik.furusjo@ri.se