Abstract
Decarbonizing aviation requires, among other strategies, use of low-carbon liquid fuels, since electrified propulsion of large aircraft is not yet viable. However, commercialization of such ‘sustainable aviation fuels’ is lagging due to uncertainty about their potential. Here, we integrate land-use assessment, hydroclimate and ecosystem modelling and economic optimization in a systems framework to better characterize the biojet-fuel potential of cellulosic feedstocks. Planting 23.2 Mha of marginal agricultural lands in the United States—roughly the land area of Wyoming—with the grass miscanthus satisfies the country’s projected 2040 jet-fuel demand (30 billion gallons yr−1) at an average cost of US$4.1 gallon−1. Centred in the Midwest region, this marginal land base is a mix of croplands (7.2 Mha) and non-croplands (16 Mha), whose conversion into miscanthus delivers productive biomass, regional cooling without soil moisture loss and the lowest system greenhouse gas emissions (at US$50 tCO2e−1 carbon price). It is unsustainable to source the same quantity of miscanthus biomass through marginal land conversions in the Plains region. Sustainability considerations generate different land conversion patterns than expected from a purely economic vantage point. Integrated approaches, such as used here, are imperative to realistically evaluate the sustainability of bio-based alternative feedstocks.
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Data availability
A public repository that contains the data underlying the main figures and data needed to obtain the main results is available at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VBFLI2. Additional data that support the findings of this study are available from N.U.A. upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.
Code availability
All GAMS code needed to replicate our economic optimization results are available at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VBFLI2. Additional code that support the findings of this study are available from N.U.A. upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the National Science Foundation grant EAR-1204774 through the Water Sustainability and Climate initiative. N.U.A. was supported by this grant during her doctoral studies at Arizona State University and later by a gift to the Environmental Defense Fund from the Bezos Earth Fund for her postdoctoral fellowship.
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N.U.A. was responsible for the data collection, preparation of economic model inputs, analysis of results, making of figures, writing and editing. N.C.P. conducted the economic modelling and contributed to the analysis of results, making of figures, writing and editing. W.M. provided synthesis of hydroclimate simulation results. A.V. and J.B. conducted ecosystem modelling. M.G. conceived of the study and contributed to writing and editing. All authors contributed equally to study design and editing of the final manuscript.
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Uludere Aragon, N.Z., Parker, N.C., VanLoocke, A. et al. Sustainable land use and viability of biojet fuels. Nat Sustain 6, 158–168 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00990-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00990-w