Feedstocks and Conversion Routes for Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Aviation is the hardest part of transport to electrify, so the sector's energy transition depends on producing a liquid fuel with jet-range properties from something other than crude oil. Several routes can do this. Hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids convert oils and fats, alcohol-to-jet converts fermentation alcohols, Fischer-Tropsch converts syngas from biomass or waste, and hybrid routes combine biogenic carbon with renewable hydrogen. Each route suits different feedstocks, carries a different hydrogen and heat demand, reaches a different yield of the jet fraction, and lands at a different cost. What the field lacks is not another demonstration of a single route, but a basis on which the routes can be compared against one another for a given feedstock and a given production scale.This Research Topic brings together the process chemistry, the catalysis, the process integration and the economics of converting biomass, wastes and renewable carbon into aviation fuel. We are interested in how feedstock composition and availability constrain the choice of route, in catalyst and reactor design for deoxygenation, oligomerisation and selectivity towards the jet fraction, in how hydrogen supply and heat integration shape the energy balance of a plant, and in what happens to yield, cost and life cycle performance when a route moves from laboratory scale towards demonstration. Fuel properties are treated here as the design target the route has to meet, including energy density, freezing point and blending behaviour.This collection is about the route from feedstock to jet-range fuel. Combustion behaviour and exhaust emissions of finished fuels, bioenergy and biofuel production not directed at aviation, and electrolysis or carbon capture treated as subjects in their own right are addressed elsewhere in the journal. Power-to-liquid routes belong here only where they are compared with other routes to aviation fuel rather than developed on their own. We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives, Brief Research Reports and Methods papers on, but not limited to, the following themes:• Conversion routes to jet-range hydrocarbons, including hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids, alcohol-to-jet, Fischer-Tropsch and hybrid routes• Feedstock availability, composition and pretreatment, and how feedstock choice constrains route selection• Catalyst and reactor design for deoxygenation, oligomerisation and selectivity towards the jet fraction• Process integration, hydrogen supply and heat management, and their effect on the energy balance of production• Fuel properties as design targets, including energy density, freezing point, aromatic content and blending behaviour• Comparative techno-economic and life cycle assessment of competing routes evaluated on a common basis• Co-processing of biogenic and waste-derived intermediates in existing refinery units• Scale-up from laboratory yield to demonstration, and the constraints that limit it Topic editors: Arick Castillo-Landero, Ladislao Sandoval-Rangel, Carolina Solis Maldonado Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86568/feedstocks-and-conversion-routes-for-sustainable-aviation-fuel