Sustainable production of jet biofuels in tropical countries

Currently, there are concerns to reduce the fossil fuel dependence, and therefore new energy sources are being proposed to supply the increasing energy demand. Then, biomass appears as a promising alternative to produce environmentally friendly biofuels with competitive advantages over non-renewable fuels. Taking this into account, it should be analyzed the inclusion of biofuels in the aeronautic industry as a complement for the jet fuel produced from oil mainly influenced by economic factors and attention of environmental protection. According to this, in the present work a techno-economic analysis for the production of jet biofuel on a biorefinery concept is performed for the Colombian case. Two scenarios are shown based on different conversion pathways as function of feedstock distributions and technologies for the joint production of sugar, fuel ethanol, fuel butanol and electricity from sugarcane. These scenarios are compared with the current sugarcane biorefinery operating in Colombia (simultaneous production of sugar, fuel ethanol, and electricity). A simulation procedure was used in order to evaluate the proposed biorefinery schemes for all the scenarios including techno-economic and environmental assessments. This analysis serves as a reference line on the technological, economic and environmental feasibility to implement such type of biorefinery in Colombia. This also serves as a basis to evaluate the sustainable production of jet biofuels in tropical countries, especially in the Colombian context, due to its great potential and biomass availability.