Jet fuel could bring opportunity to Hi-Line farmers

A push across the nation — and across the world — to find alternatives for jet fuel could give a world of opportunity to farmers in Montana's Golden Triangle.

At a press conference in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle Wednesday, representatives of industry and academia including Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Portland International Airport, SeaTac, Spokane International Airport and Washington State University said the future of airline fuel is in renewable energy.

"In order for the aviation sector to continue its impressive record of fuel efficiency and emissions reduction while continuing to grow, it is important that a sustainable supply of aviation biofuels is developed, " Alaska Air Group Chair and CEO Bill Ayer said during the press conference.

One of the prime sources of renewable jet fuels, called feedstocks, examined in a 10-month study discussed during the press conference was camelina, a crop of increasing interest in north-central Montana.

MCAI Group announced recently that it intends to build a biodiesel production facility using camelina and other agricultural products at the Montana Agro-Energy Industrial Park being prepared southwest of Havre.

Greg Kegel, dean of the College of Technical Sciences at Montana State University-Northern, said local farmers could be raising the crop for jet fuel as well.

"Once you've got the oil … that oil then can be used for biodiesel or jet fuel, " Kegel said. "It could be used either way. "

He added that he believes one of the best uses for the camelina oil is jet fuel — camelina-based jet fuel is better than camelina-based biodiesel.

"And that's a fact, " he said.

Kegel was in Los Angeles this morning for a meeting of his own — on another study also about the possibility of making renewable jet fuel.

Northern, a leader in researching the creation of fuel using agricultural crops, has several projects related to jet fuel.

Kegel said one of those, funded through a grant by the U. S. Department of Energy, is just getting started. Other research projects on the topic are under way.

The study discussed at Wednesday's press conference, the result of work by more than 40 partners to examine creating a supply of aviation fuel produced in the Pacific Northwest, looked at all phases of aviation biofuel development. That included production, harvest, refinement and transportation of the camelina — and other feedstocks in a diverse group of sources recommended, including products of the lumber industry and algae — as well as airport infrastructure and actual use by airlines.

The study, commissioned by Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest, or SAFN, says that political support at the state and federal level is critical in the early stages of development. Focused public investments and parity with other biofuels programs will be needed to place the industry on an economically competitive basis, the report says.

Industry's need and desire — and that of the U. S. military — to switch to alternative fuels and move away from petroleum-based fuel will help create and drive the market, the press conference attendees said.

When asked why farmers in regions like north-central Montana, in a time of high grain prices, would choose to move toward a relatively unknown oilseed crop, the conference attendees said the goal is to work in symbiosis with food production, not in competition with it.

Universities including Montana State University in Bozeman are working in partnership to look at the agricultural economics of the idea, they added.

Kegel agreed this morning.

Farmers always will look at crops based on profitability, he said.

"Competition with one grain or another is always going to happen, " Kegel added.

But camelina could still be used while farmers raise food crops. Kegel said there are many acres of idle land in Montana that could be seeded to the crop — which has been shown to grow well here.

It also makes a good rotation crop, putting nutrients back in the soil and letting farmers raise a better grain crop the next year, Kegel added. If the demand to use camelina as a fuel source increases, that would allow farmers to plant it on idle land, or in rotation, to raise a good money crop as well.

"That's what we hope starts to happen, " Kegel said.

For more details on the SAFN report's recommendations, visit http://www.safnw.com.