2020

Wood Raises Wings

In the very near future, global air carriers plan to operate their daily flights with aircraft that will run on bio-renewable fuel from specially recycled wood waste materials acquired in the paper and pulp production process.

The development of widely available aviation fuel derived from wood residues has been going on for several years already. In 2016, the US carrier Alaska Airlines made the world's first commercial flight using such (green) fuel; however, the previous products have proven not to be suitable for mass industrial production.

The situation has changed significantly this year, when a group of South Korean scientists from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that they had finally succeeded in developing a technology that will allow them to produce clean and economically viable aviation fuel from lignin in the future.

In the production of paper and pulp, lignin becomes industrial waste that is mainly used to generate heat. On 1 June, KIST's research team published a study on the efficient processing of lignin into biofuels in the ScienceDirect.com database of scientific literature publisher “Elsevier”.

Kristaps Ceplis, Head of the society “Zaļās mājas”, tells that today everything is used in the forest and wood processing industry, wood waste materials are given a new value and innovation.

“It cannot even be compared to the amount of residues that remained in the forest after logging 30 years ago. Currently, companies are trying to use all parts of wood and its residue, trunks, twigs, shavings, even needles and birch beams. Companies are looking for ways to work more economically, to use everything and get the most value out of each cubic metre of wood.

The achievement of wood chemists is a very important step towards replacing fossil energy resources with renewable resources; moreover, it is made at a time when the introduction of alternative biofuels has become vital for air carriers as well,” says Kristaps Ceplis, Head of the society “Zaļās mājas”.

In October 2016, the Member States of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) agreed to reduce carbon emissions from civil aviation, providing that in 2027 they should not exceed the level of 2020.

The method developed by KIST researchers to convert wood waste into high-quality fuel is not so unique. Biogenic aviation fuel is already offered on the market by the Finnish company “Neste”; however, the fuel production process is different since other biological waste is used as production resources such as used vegetable oils, fats, etc. Since 2012, a small amount of wood fuel has also been produced within the framework of a pilot project implemented by the Austrian company “BioCrack”.