Decarbonizing the long-distance transportation sector

Jack Saddler

UBC & BC-SMART
The BC-SMART Low Carbon Fuels Consortium

John (Jack) Saddler is the endowed Professor of Biofuels/Bioenergy and Dean Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has received many awards such as the 2016 Linneborn award from the European Bioenergy Organization, the Charles D. Scott award for contributions to the field of “Biotechnology for fuels and Chemicals His work is highly cited (H-index of 104, more than 63,717 citations), he has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers, several books, holds several patents and is a regular reviewer/advisor for agencies such as the US Dept. of Energy, USDA, NSERC, World Bank, etc. He has aided organizations such as Vinnova in Sweden with their Vinnvaxt “cluster” program and was on the advisory board of the Finnish Luke Stakeholder Advisory Board for the Boreal Green Bioeconomy. Jack has advised policy-makers at national and international levels and he is a former member of the Markus Wallenberg Prize selection committee, the forest sector’s Nobel Prize.

Topic: “How do we decarbonize the long-distance transport sector, particularly aviation?"

The use of biojet/Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) is likely to be the main way to decarbonize the aviation sector by 2030, with “green” electrification and hydrogen possibly contributing by 2050.

Due to their lower carbon intensity (CI), Fats, Oils, and Greases (FOG’s) are preferred lipid feedstocks although, currently, they are primarily used to make biodiesel and renewable diesel.  As a result, there has been a significant increase in the price paid for these “waste” lipid feedstocks, and a consequent increase in the amount that is now collected. However, increasing amounts of SAF are made from higher-CI, plant-derived lipids such as soya, rape/canola, etc.

In the longer term, biomass-derived-biocrudes will be required to supplement lipids, with BC’s well-established forest and pellet sector well positioned to provide the sustainably sourced biomass feedstock.

The BC-SMART (www.BC-SMART.ca) group, based at UBC, has many years of experience in low-carbon transportation fuels technology assessment, market development, feedstocks availability, sustainability assessment, logistics analysis and assessing the carbon intensity of alternative transportation fuels, particularly biojet/Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).

The team also has extensive experience in the types of policies that will be needed to promote low carbon fuels development and use (such as BC’s Low Carbon Fuels Standard, (LCFS)). Our involvement at an international level (particularly through work with IEA and IRENA) has given the “secretariate” considerable exposure and knowledge of other jurisdictions such as the EU and the US.

Our team has collaborated and partnered with various organizations around the world including IEA, IRENA, US DoE, California Air Resources Branch (CARB), BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, Port of Vancouver, Air Canada, WestJet, SeaSpan, the CSL Group Inc. (a leading provider of marine dry bulk cargo handling and delivery services in Canada), Green Marine (an environmental certification program for the North American marine industry), Maersk and many more.