ExCo78 – Drop-in biofuels for international marine and aviation markets – Summary and conclusions
While biofuels are currently mostly associated with road transport, in the longer term their role in international transport (aviation and shipping) will increase as these sectors rely on high energy density fuels. Technology evolution will be needed to bring the costs of biofuels down and de-risking investments will be crucial to deploy these technologies. It will also be important to evolve towards biorefinery approaches, delivering a range of outputs. Marine biofuels and biojet fuels are complementary in that they are at different ends of the fuel quality spectrum, the former generally using lower quality fuels while the latter requires high quality fuels. Reaching a substantial scale of biofuels in aviation and marine applications will require a mix of international and regional initiatives. A carbon price applied across all sectors would create a level playing field.
