Green and Growing

In a generally gloomy economic era for many established regions, Latin America is emerging as one of the world’s hot spots. Anticipated air traffic growth related to economic expansion and some high-profile events has led the region’s airlines, airports and aerospace industry to work together and pioneer eco-aviation programs designed to help sustain that growth.

In July, the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) held its first Latin America Sustainable Aviation Workshop in Rio de Janeiro. TAM holding group CEO Marco Antonio Bologna said air transportation was expected to grow two or three times the GDP in Latin America over the next 15 years. This fast pace will require the region’s airlines to be more efficient. According to Bologna, Latin American carriers fully endorse industry-wide goals of improving fuel efficiency by 1.5% per year through 2020, neutralizing net carbon emissions by 2020, and achieving a 50% net reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. For TAM and other carriers in the region, this has meant active involvement in working groups and test programs related to bio-fuel use and other sustainability efforts. 

     Alex de Gunten, executive director of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association, said that while the region’s market remains small relative to the rest of the world—representing 7% of world passengers and 5.1% of the world jet fleet—growth potential is significant. Gunten said expected annual passenger growth of 6.9% and jet fleet growth of 7.2% would put the region’s expansion rate second only to the Middle East. Leading the growth are Brazil and Mexico.

 With that growth, however, comes concern about how to meet demand with congested airports, poor airport-city connections, outdated air traffic control technology, and fees and taxes that are not fully reinvested in the air transportation system. Brazil, in particular, will host the FIFA World Cup soccer event in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. While the tourist and traffic boosts these events will provide will be much welcomed, much of the transportation infrastructure to support it has yet to be put in place. And there is industry consensus that growth must be both efficient and sustainable.

Biofuel Research Efforts 

Programs to support that thinking are well under way, however, and many are focused on using local resources. In 2008, Boeing funded a two-year research by Yale University’s School of Environmental Studies that centered on establishing the sustainability of jet fuel production based on Jatropha, an oil-producing non-edible plant indigenous to Brazil and Mexico. Boeing also helped support a comprehensive exercise established by the Mexican government through the state-owned Airports and Auxiliary Services airport management company. The so-called “flight plan towards sustainable aviation biofuels”—known locally as the Plan de Vuelo —brought together more than 1,000 stakeholders and analyzed links and gaps in the sustainable biofuels’ supply chain. Issues related to raw materials and extraction, infrastructure and refining, financing, legislation, logistics and distribution were examined as part of the plan. Jatrophaand Agave were among the plants studied as part of the roadmap, which led to Airports and Auxiliary Services establishing a plan to develop biofuel production capacity at up to four refineries by 2020.

   On July 21, LCC Interjet conducted a CFM56-powered Airbus A320 flight between its Mexico City base and Tuxtla Gutierrez that was fueled by a mix of 73% conventional Jet A-1 fuel and 27% bio-derived synthetic paraffinic kerosene produced from Jatropha seed oil. Soon after arriving in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the A320 returned to Mexico City with the same fuel mix and also with a full passenger load. These flights marked the first Americas’ passenger services using a biofuel mix. The Jatropha oil was produced by the Mexican state of Chipas, processed by Honeywell company UOP, formerly known as Universal Oil Products, and delivered by Mexico’s Airports and Auxiliary Services.

In early August, Aeromexico performed the first biofuel-mix transoceanic passenger service when a GE90-Boeing 777-200ER flew from Mexico City to Madrid. The aircraft had onboard 75 tonnes of blended fuel, 30% produced from Jatropha seed oil and 70% from conventional jet fuel. This time the biofuel was provided by Boeing and delivered by Airports Auxiliary Service. Aeromexico plans to begin a Mexico City - San José, Costa Rica, service using a CFM56-powered Boeing 737-700 with the same biofuel mixture.

On Nov. 23, Brazilian carrier TAM performed the first Latin America biofuel flight test in a joint program with Airbus and CFM International. An Airbus A320 flew for 45 minutes out of Rio de Janeiro with 20 TAM and Airbus staff onboard. It was fuelled by a 50:50 mix of Jet A-1 and Jatophra-based biofuel produced in Brazil and processed by UOP.

   Brazilian LCC Azul, meanwhile, is planning a demonstration flight in early 2012 in which a GE CF34-powered Embraer E-Jet will use renewable jet fuel produced by Amyris, a US alternative fuels company that has a production facility in Brazil. This is part of a study headed by Amyris which is assessing the feasibility of producing bio-jet fuel from sugar cane. The study is jointly funded by Boeing, Embraer and the Inter-American Development Bank, with research efforts led by Brazilian think tank Icone. The World Wildlife Fund is project independent advisor and reviewer.

But with all the newly discovered potential of Jatropha comes another challenge: how to produce enough of it. In September, SG Biofuels announced another joint program in the region. The company has teamed with JetBio, a Brazilian company that specializes in biofuels projects and is part of an initiative that includes Airbus, the Inter-American Development Bank, Bioventures Brazil, Rio Pardo Bioenergia, Air BP and TAM, to accelerate the production of crude Jatropha oil.

SG Biofuels will work with Bioventures Brazil, an energy crop
project developer, and others to help develop 75,000 acres of Jatropha plantations in Brazil’s central-west region.

“Jatropha has proven to be the most cost-effective and sustainable feedstock for renewable jet fuel, but the challenge lies in scaling production to meet demand,” Paul Nash, Airbus head of new energies, said.

There is also focus on realizing the potential of other plants, including sugar cane, for which Brazil is the world’s largest producer. “Sugar cane is one of the most photosynthetic-efficient, renewable and widely available feedstock,” said Joel Velasco, senior VP external relations at Amyris. “With about 1.5% percent of its arable land dedicated to sugarcane for biofuel production, Brazil has been able to replace half of its gasoline needs with renewable fuels. In addition, while cane production has increased steadily in recent years, food production in Brazil has also grown dramatically.”

Widening theStage 

Another event coming to Rio de Janeiro is the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development scheduled for June. Heads of state and senior government representatives will attend and the aim will be to secure political support for green initiatives and global environment benchmarks. The conference’s timing and location dovetails with the pioneering efforts by Latin America’s aviation industry and is likely to further boost them.

“This will be the next benchmark in the global consideration of environmental issues, which are now more closely connected to the other two pillars of sustainability, social and economic,” said Jane Hupe, ICAO’s environment branch chief. “The overarching objectives of the meeting are to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assess progress made since Rio 92, and identify the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development held since then, focusing on ways to address these gaps as well as new and emerging challenges.”

“It is fundamental to these discussions because of its role as a powerful enabler of economic development. It is therefore of paramount importance that recommendations taken at the Rio + 20 summit consider the specificities of air transport, with a view to ensuring its sustainable growth. For emerging markets and regions of the world currently experiencing unprecedented economic growth and expansion of their international air transport sector, as is the case for Latin America, such results are even more relevant,” Hupe said.