Air Canada is joining in Canada’s Biojet Supply Chain Initiative (CBSCI), a three year project with multiple partners to assimilate 400,000 litres of sustainable aviation into the shared fuel system. This is not the first entree of Air Canada in terms of biojet fuel. The airline has flown several biojet flights but the aviation fuel was segregated and loaded separately into an aircraft via tanker truck. However the CBSCI initiative will build a framework that will allow the biojet fuel to be blended into aviation fuel used at the airport.
“We are pleased to support this important initiative by facilitating the logistics involved in the introduction of biojet to an airport’s shared fuel system,” said Teresa Ehman, Director – Environmental Affairs at Air Canada. “In doing our part towards responsible growth and environmental sustainability, Air Canada has invested billions of dollars in fleet renewal to reduce our fuel consumption and meet our current emission reduction goals.”
Ehman added, “Biojet holds the potential to be an important part of our strategy for achieving our longer-term industry goals of carbon neutral growth from 2020 and a 50 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050, relative to 2005 levels. The CBSCI project will contribute significantly to advancing a biojet supply chain in this country.”
The CBSCI project, the first of its kind in Canada, is aimed at creating a sustainable Canadian supply chain of biojet using renewable feedstocks. Canada has abundant agricultural and forestry biomass resources, with globally recognized sustainable production and harvesting practices. The biojet fuel used in this project will be sourced from commercially available, certifiably sustainable Canadian oleochemical feedstocks using the Hydroprocessed Esters and a Fatty Acids (HEFA) conversion process. The biojet fuel will be blended with petroleum jet fuel to meet all technical quality specifications before being introduced into a shared fuel tank at a Canadian airport, yet to be determined. The CBSCI project will also identify and help solve supply logistic barriers that arise when aviation biofuels are introduced at major Canadian airports.