US Aviation Sector Decarbonization Within Reach: ASU Study

The aviation industry is one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonize, and yet new research shows that it is within reach for the United States to decarbonize the fuel used by commercial aviation. The study, led by a team of Arizona State University researchers, found that planting the grass miscanthus on 23.2 million hectares of existing marginal agricultural lands across the United States would provide enough biomass feedstock to meet the liquid fuel demands of the U.S. aviation sector fully from biofuels. This is a promising solution to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from air travel, which are expected to grow under a business-as-usual scenario.

The research team used an integrated framework of land assessments, hydro-climate modeling, ecosystem modeling and economic modeling to assess where and under what conditions across the United States energy crops used for biojet fuels could be grown sustainably. They found that growing miscanthus or switchgrass needed to be more profitable to replace the existing use of the land in each area, and in the end, researchers found miscanthus to be the more promising feedstock.

This research is a step in the right direction for reducing the environmental impact of air travel. While Santa may have relied on a sleigh and reindeer as a mode of transportation for centuries, it is an unsustainable practice that has a detrimental effect on the environment and contributes to climate change. We must find more sustainable solutions to reduce the emissions from air travel, and this research provides a promising pathway to do so.