Avianca Brasil And Byogy Renewables Forge Initiative To Drive The Global Approval Of Alcohol-To-Jet (ATJ) Renewable Jet Fuel

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its commitment to deliver price competitive, 100% replacement biofuels, Byogy Renewables and airline partner Avianca Brasil have launched a significant initiative to support advanced testing to accelerate the Byogy ATJ ASTM approval.

Unlike the confusing term drop-in fuel, which is defined as the final mixture of hydrocarbon additive products with jet fuel produced from oil, Byogy's proprietary ATJ process produces one of the world's first full replacement fuel that does not require blending, and also demonstrates performance characteristics better than jet fuel produced from oil.  Byogy's jet fuel is not an additive, but instead, a full replacement standalone fuel, and hence can be used at any blend ratio up to 100%.

"Our goal with our partner Avianca is to first, support the approval of the ATJ suite of process technologies in accordance with current regulations that limit blending to 50%, and then, after gaining appropriate experience testing data, work with the ASTM stakeholders to study the potential use of higher blend ratios that will in turn drive the highest level of carbon reduction possible of any renewable fuel," said Kevin Weiss, CEO of Byogy.

The initiative will also study to validate the significant beneficial environmental impact achieved using Byogy's ATJ to satisfy the proposed ICAO 2050 Neutral Carbon Growth mandate for the country of Brazil by leveraging the existing, and abundant sugar cane feedstock, as opposed to waiting for years before other agriculture feedstock industries are proven cost effective.

"Avianca is fully committed to supporting the Byogy ATJ fuel approval process and believes it is the best solution for Avianca to achieve carbon neutrality for its operations in Brazil," said Captain Norberto Raniero, Vice President of Operations at Avianca.

"We believe that the increase in aviation demand will show that the only way to achieve the carbon reduction mandate, set out by the ICAO, is to use high blend ratios of renewable aviation fuel," said Weiss. "This is probably the most significant initiative in the aviation industry as it demonstrates the evolution to a full replacement, high quality renewable aviation fuel."

By leveraging the existing global feedstock of ethanol, Byogy is not limited to its own ability to produce alcohol and hence is not subject to the scale up risks associated with novel biological organisms.  Instead, Byogy's proven petrochemical process will capitalize on the global efforts that are currently driving the production cost of ethanol down.  As Weiss states, "at some point, we will wake up from this ethanol hangover and realize that it is more important to use alcohols to produce full replacement renewable aviation fuels than it is to push higher blends of alcohols into infrastructure that cannot support it."

Once approved by ASTM, it is anticipated that the Byogy ATJ bio-jet fuel will deliver to operators the multiple benefits including, lower fuel consumption, lower engine maintenance cost, and a significant beneficial environmental impact.

About Byogy Renewables, Inc.
Byogy Renewables, headquartered in California with a subsidiary in Brazil, has developed a proprietary breakthrough catalytic platform that converts any source of ethanol, butanol, mixed alcohols, or related olefins, into full replacement, and cost competitive biofuels including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

About Avianca Brasil
Avianca Brasil is a Brazilian commercial airline based in Sao Paulo operating passenger services to over 25 destinations. Avianca is committed to achieve reduced carbon emissions through the use of competitive aviation biofuels.

For more information about this topic, please contact Ms. Eva Cabico at (408) 790-4999 or via e-mail at: [email protected].

SOURCE Byogy Renewables, Inc.