The Sustainable Mallee Jet Fuel project was commissioned by Airbus and carried out by an existing consortium formed to investigate the large scale production of biomass from mallee eucalypts growns as short rotation coppice crops.

The study included two parts:

the sustainability assessment of the proposed value chain according to the Roundtable for Sustainable Biomass (RSB) principles,

the comparative life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, energy demand and fossil fuel use of mallee jet fuel and conventional jet fuel supply.

The assessment was performed for a case study consisting of a jet fuel value chain comprising the following components:

a mixed farm (grain-livestock) located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, with 400-600 mm of annual rainfall;

a pyrolysis conversion facility with a conversion capability of 133 kt (dry) feedstock per year; and

an upgrading facility near Perth to upgrade the pyrolysis oil in jet fuel, with a supply capability of 13-20 Ml to Perth airport.

Project partners provided data to the project; the CRC and its R&D partners conducted the supporting analyses, and RMIT University conducted the lifecycle assessment for greenhouse gas emissions.