UVA researchers on quest for sustainable aviation fuel

University of Virginia researchers are part of the team experimenting with a chemical process that could make a U.S. DOE $1 billion “Grand Challenge” a reality: jets that regularly fly long distances, such as across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, using only sustainable aviation fuel.

From left, Whitcomb and Davis. (Photo: UVA Engineering)

Robert J. Davis, a chemical engineer on faculty at the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science and Colby Whitcomb, a postdoctoral research associate in the Davis lab, are trying to make a plant-based hydrocarbon fuel for jets using catalysis, a way to more efficiently produce a desired chemical product—in this case the conversion of ethanol to aviation fuel.

Biofuels are compatible with modern engines and have the potential to cut greenhouse-gas emission by 85 percent, according to DOE.

Davis and Whitcomb are working with the multi-institutional team converting plant matter at the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, led by Oak Ridge National Lab and supported by DOE.

The targeted biomass sources are poplar trees and switchgrass because they proliferate quickly and require few resources to make them grow.

Moreover, they contain large amounts of fermentable sugars that can be used to produce ethanol. 

The UVA researchers work closely with a group at Oak Ridge that is developing a catalyst for the conversion of ethanol into short-chain hydrocarbons, and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to use acidic zeolite catalysts in the transformation of those short hydrocarbons to longer molecules suitable for aviation fuel.

Davis is a world-renowned expert in reaction engineering who has authored over 170 publications.

He chaired UVA’s chemical-engineering department from 2002 to 2011.

He has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the Wilhelm Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

His efforts have advanced research on new, renewable, environmentally friendly and economical energy sources. 

The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge is DOE collaboration with the Department of Transportation and USDA to achieve a minimum 50 percent reduction in lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions compared to conventional fuel.

The federal government also is shooting to meet 100 percent of aviation-fuel demand with biofuel by 2050.

“This is a massive effort involving national labs and universities from all over the country in four bioenergy research centers,” Davis said. “These centers bring together a diverse collection of scientists and engineers to approach the many issues involved with efficiently growing, collecting, processing and refining biomass into biofuels.”

DOE’s Grand Challenge shares a lot in common with the university’s own Grand Challenge Research Investments, established by the UVA Vice President for Research’s Office to promote researched solutions to the world’s most urgent problems, including climate change.

The Davis Lab Group is part of the university’s broader catalysis team.