NEW YORK — The number of global fliers is expected to more than double in the next two decades. To carry the extra passengers, airlines are turning to a technology very few can make work on a large scale: converting trash into fuel.
They have no other choice.
As people in countries such as China, India and Indonesia get wealthier, they are increasingly turning to air travel for vacation or business, creating an enormous financial opportunity for the airlines. The number of passengers worldwide could more than double, to 7.3 billion a year, in the next two decades, according to the International Air Transport Association.
But many in the industry think that without a replacement for jet fuel, that growth could be threatened by forthcoming rules that limit global aircraft emissions.
“It’s about retaining, as an industry, our license to grow,” said Julie Felgar, managing director for environmental strategy at plane maker Boeing, which is coordinating sustainable biofuel research programs in the U.S., Australia, China, Brazil, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
Cars, trucks and trains can run on electricity, natural gas or perhaps even hydrogen someday to meet emissions rules.
But lifting a few hundred people, suitcases and cargo 35,000 feet into the sky and carrying them across a continent requires so much energy that only liquid fuels can do the trick. Fuel from corn, which is easy to make and supplies nearly 10 percent of U.S. auto fuel, doesn’t provide enough environmental benefit to help airlines meet emissions rules.
“Unlike the ground transport sector, they don’t have a lot of alternatives,” said Debbie Hammel, a bioenergy policy expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
That leaves so-called advanced biofuels made from agricultural waste, trash or specialty crops that humans don’t eat.
United Airlines last month announced a $30 million stake in Fulcrum BioEnergy, the biggest investment yet by a U.S. airline in alternative fuels. Fulcrum hopes to build facilities that turn household trash into diesel and jet fuel.
FedEx, which burns 1.1 billion gallons of jet fuel a year, promised Tuesday to buy 3 million gallons per year of fuel that Fort Collins-based Red Rock Biofuels plans to make out of wood waste in Oregon. Southwest Airlines already had agreed to buy 3 million gallons per year from Red Rock.
These efforts are tiny next to airlines’ enormous fuel consumption. U.S. airlines burn through 45 million gallons every day.
“We really are trying to create a brand-new fuel industry,” said Boeing’s Felgar. “We’ve always known this is a long-term play, and our industry is long term.”
