CAAFI®: U.S. Government Releases ‘Federal Alternative Jet Fuels R&D Strategy’
Washington, DC, July 28, 2016: Today, the White House released the ‘Federal Alternative Jet Fuels Research and Development (R&D) Strategy’, mapping out a unified federal plan to advance R&D as well as science and technology solutions to support deployment of alternative jet fuels (AJFs) in both civil and military aviation.
The strategy provides a prioritized list of R&D goals and objectives addressing specific scientific, technical, analytical, and logistics challenges that hinder the development, production, and wide-scale economic deployment of AJFs. In releasing the FAJFS, the federal government hopes to accelerate the development of the AJF industry by minimizing technical uncertainty to encourage further private sector interest, facilitate the development and approval of new AJF pathways, and reduce the cost of AJF production in the United States.
In late 2013, an Alternative Jet Fuel Interagency Working Group (AJF-IWG) was established under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Aeronautics Science and Technology. The AJF-IWG, made up of representatives from nine federal agencies, consulted with key stakeholders and developed the strategy. Going forward it will lead implementation of the strategy, analyze ongoing federal efforts, and collaborate with federal and non-federal stakeholders, including the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI®), in advancing four thematic areas of the strategy, namely:
- Feedstock development, production, and logistics
- Fuel conversion and scale-up
- Fuel testing and evaluation and
- Integrated challenges such as sustainability
CAAFI participated in the survey and review process and provided input to the strategy during the initial stakeholder discussions held in January 2014. Moving forward, CAAFI will continue to play a strong role in expanding and strengthening public-private-partnerships to target solutions to existing challenges. CAAFI welcomes this strategy as an achievement that will accelerate the deployment of AJFs in civil and military aviation, and supports the coordination of Federal R&D efforts to develop and deploy AJFs.
CAAFI’s leadership and work teams will serve as a key connection point between federal efforts and non-federal and industry stakeholders and looks forward to working with the organizations in the AJF-IWG to aid in its implementation. CAAFI will host several sessions on the FAJFS at the CAAFI Biennial General Meeting (CBGM) including discussions of execution strategy led by the federal agencies, the integration of ongoing and planned activities across the public-private-partnership spectrum to meet the strategy’s objectives, and the providing of feedback on adjacent objectives and activities that could be undertaken to fulfill the vision of the Strategy.
Source: CAAFI®