Charting a Greener Flight Path: Sustainable Aviation Fuel

The aviation industry is one of the fastest-growing contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, companies like KBR are doing their part to stem the tide with cutting-edge technologies like PureSAF(SM), launched in alliance with Swedish Biofuels. Dr. Monica Normark, director of Biofuels with KBR's Technology business, gave us a primer on the benefits of biofuels and explained how PureSAF has the potential to be a game changer for the aviation industry and other sectors as well.

Transcript

IN ORBIT: A KBR PODCAST

Season 3, Episode 14

Driving Energy Transition: Sustainable Aviation Fuel

INTRODUCTION

John Arnold

Hello, I'm John. This is In Orbit. Welcome to the podcast, one and all. If you're a returning Orbiter, thanks for coming back. If you're joining us for the first time, we're very glad you found us. Whatever the case may be, we're just glad you're all tuning in and staying in our orbit.

What a day you picked to listen. We've covered a lot of ground over the summer from inclusion and diversity to cybersecurity, to project management and modularization, to putting people back on the moon and beyond. It's exciting to think about how KBR people are making all of that happen. Those are just a few examples of the great things our people do.

KBR has decades of experience and expertise in myriad areas, including bringing cutting-edge, first of their kind technologies and solutions to market. Well today, dear listeners, you get to hear about one of those new solutions. With us to talk about it is Monica Normark, director of Biofuels in KBR's Technology business unit, part of the broader Sustainable Technology Solutions business.

Welcome to the podcast, Monica.

Monica Normark

Thank you, John, for having me today.

John Arnold

It's an absolute pleasure. I've heard wonderful things. Also for any of our KBR people that are listening, this will be a nice teaser to when you speak with the community of interest coming up on a similar topic.

Monica Normark

I'm looking forward to do that. It's next week, I think.

John Arnold

Yeah, I think it is next week. Well, before we get started in our conversation about solutions, why don't you tell us a little about yourself, your professional journey, and how you came to be part of the KBR team?

Monica Normark

Ah, okay. I will give you the honest truth here. I never saw myself as being an engineer and not a technical doctor either. I was not supposed to go into engineering, but with some encouragement, I found my way. I'm so happy. Now I'm a chemical engineer. I'm a technical doctor in chemistry and been working with biofuels in the pulp and paper industry in Sweden. Coming in contact with KBR, being approached to lead this biofuels technology portfolio was an honor and offer I couldn't say no to. It's so exciting to be in the KBR community and the team. I really see how we can make a difference here with our new offering in SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] that we will talk to a little bit today.

John Arnold

Well, on behalf of the whole KBR team, I'm glad that serendipity worked in our favor and that you both got into engineering and ended up on the team of teams here.

Monica Normark

Yeah, I mean, I was not even taking natural science in high school. I have done a lot of studying and was aiming for medicine or law, but now in chemical engineering I found my place. I'm so happy to be here. Hopefully I can contribute to the KBR team in my biofuels experience growing this.

John Arnold

That's wonderful. Well, with more governments and countries decreasing reliance on fossil fuels in favor of more renewable forms of energy production, as you just said, this is an exciting time for KBR's technology business, which has a long history of delivering sustainable solutions, such as biofuels. I wonder, would you mind giving our listeners a crash course in what we mean when we talk about biofuel?

Monica Normark

Yeah, when we talk about biofuels, we are actually talking about circular carbon. It's carbon from different sources. Now we're talking about carbon from biomass. During this transition from liner carbon economy to more circular carbon, it's what we are, what biofuel is all about. I mean, nature is fantastic and already have engineered it so smart for us. It's about during conversion of biomass residues that is the leftovers that we don't utilize today, for example, sawdust from the sawmill industry, forest residues that I've been working a lot with, agriculture residues.

I mean, lignocellulosic material is cellulose. What is cellulose? It's an abundant polymer that we have in nature. It's sugar. From that you can build a lot of things, for example, alcohols, or you can do a lot of other application that we see now coming forward. I would say it's utilizing what we have in a responsible way, of course, but making more value of what we really have in nature today.

John Arnold

It had never occurred to me. It's a fascinating thought to consider biofuel being circular. That's so interesting.

Monica Normark

I mean, I often got this question, but you will still emit carbon dioxide when you, for example, in sustainable aviation fuel, yes. I mean, but it's all about the holistic view. It's the circle, the life cycle. When we are introducing new technologies, we need to look into the whole picture. The value chain that we are introducing something that is sustainable, it needs to come from sustainable resource. It needs to be captured again. As biomass is capturing carbon dioxide, we are utilizing, we are borrowing the carbon, again, molecules. We are utilizing it back then in carbon emissions, but that will go back again when the trees and other plants will take up the CO2. That is the circular system that we are looking for to reduce our overall carbon footprint.

John Arnold

That's amazing. Well, obviously we've discussed a little how you have extensive experience in biofuels technology space. How have you seen the landscape change over the past few years, particularly around the demand for these kinds of solutions?

Monica Normark

I can, of course, speak from my background targeting pulp and paper industry growing up in Sweden. Sweden is a small country, but very heavy on the pulp and paper side and forestry management. I would say a shift also happened there when you look into what you more can do from fibers and residual streams. I would say it's been a lot of movement and a lot of applied R&D what you can do from say lignocellulosic biomass into new materials. It can be everything from bioplastic. It could be biofuels. It could be UV sunscreen.

But overall, I would say the great shift here, if you compare from 2000 when I was starting, it's the awareness. I mean, you can look at the younger generation. Having three sons, I know I can hear them speak, what they're doing in school. They are such much more aware of the surrounding, the climate effects and that we need to do something. I think it starts to impact a lot more now. We see that also in different regions, countries that the push is there. Everybody knows that we need to do something. Of course, we need to do it in a responsible way, but the urgency is there. I would say that the awareness of the situation, it's been shifted a lot.

John Arnold

Well, in concert with that, earlier this year, KBR announced it was launching a sustainable aviation fuel technology in alliance with Swedish Biofuels. Would you please tell us about this solution and the science behind it?

Monica Normark

Yes, we called the platform developed by Swedish Biofuel for PureSAF℠. They are the pioneers of the alcohol-to-jet pathway. Now KBR exclusively licensed this technology. I would say the unique thing here is actually that the PureSAF technology that the science behind it actually is differentiated since we can produce a renewable fungible jet fuel. This started under DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] in the U.S.

John Arnold

Interesting.

Monica Normark

Yes, Swedish Biofuel was funded by DARPA looking into with the objective to see can you do something from biomass to alcohol to jet fuel for a 100% replacement drop in fuel. They were very successful producing the results, showing what could be done. DARPA continued to fund them. They started in a research program, a test program. That actually ended up then being now in the civil aviation, the alcohol-to-jet pathway. But due to this unique feature of the jet fuel produced on the PureSAF, we actually can meet the military specification today because Swedish Biofuel started with this 100% replacement. We know today we only have a blend stock for 50% of blending of sustainable aviation fuel. But this is something that we are proud that we can put this solution now in the market. That can really enhance the transition that we need for aviation fuel.

John Arnold

Yeah, it sounds like an absolute game changer with significant implications on emissions reductions. How does that translate then to the aviation industry, for example? Then also we've mentioned that this was something born out of interest from DARPA. Why is this important for aviation in terms of reducing emissions?

Monica Normark

Yeah, I think global emission from aviation amounts to around 2%. I think the number is from 2022. But we also see an increase from that now coming out from the pandemic that we also have the, I would say the military defense global emissions, what they have. I think that is also something we can't forget. I know that the defense industry is also looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

This is not something that will happen over a day. Of course, I mean, just to give an example, I think it was in some report last couple two years ago. I mean, I think yes, the US defense in total amounts roughly the same number of CO2 emissions as the country of Peru. I think we overall have a lot to do to do this transition. What we are happy, from KBR's side, is that we can contribute with PureSAF and really make it a stepwise implementation with this renewable fungible jet fuel that also serves the military and allows them to start to reducing their carbon footprint and also for the civil aviation.

John Arnold

It sounds like, especially due to all of the work that KBR does with various governments around the world, that there would be massive implications for helping decarbonize in the defense sector. It would seem like lots of synergies there between the [KBR] Government Solutions business and the Sustainable Technology Solutions business there to streamline putting this out on the market.

Monica Normark

Yes, I agree with you 100%. I think we will listen in what they need and present what we can do today. It's all about to understanding what would they need to feel comfortable and secure in this product that we can produce. Because the new thing that will come under ASDM later this year, since our partner got approved for alcohol-to-jet with a mixed alcohol feed, but also with the option of having aromatics in the sustainable aviation fuel.

John Arnold

Interesting.

Monica Normark

That is, I would say, the key milestone to reach this 100% drop in replacement fuel because you would need aromatics in the fuel today. Instead of having only being a blend stock, we can actually produce that directly from our platform. From a military specification, you would need that in a certain range and depending on what vehicles you will have and so on.

But I think it's very important here how we can listen in, what can we do, since we have this unique platform with PureSAF, and then start the discussion. We can offer this today. What do you need? We can tailor it. The most important is now to scale, to make this still in the ground producing the fuel because that is what is needed now. This is what me and the team is doing in KBR.

John Arnold

In addition to scale and being attentive to customer needs, what are the next steps to enable widespread use of PureSAF? I imagine that there are lots of regulatory hurdles that will have to be conquered. Could you speak to that as well?

Monica Normark

Yes, and I mean my background working with advanced biofuels for low blending, I would say for heavy vehicles coming from a Swedish company that introduced E85 to the European market, it's a lot of regulatory hurdles or maybe the missing long-term regulations. If it's continue to shift and it's uncertain what will come, then of course investors will sit tight and wait. Going around globally, a lot of question is, of course, when it comes to sustainable aviation fuel is if we invest in this, what will be the requirements for sustainable aviation fuel because it doesn't look equal everywhere?

I mean, we have Europe. We have U.S. coming out strong with regulation and incentives and so on, but other countries is also coming with SAF mandates. But I think still as what is really important to try to align in a global, I would say, push for this, that would be I know that they really try to do it, but now we have it differentiated. I think it would be beneficial for really the growth of SAF to have more alignment because we will refuel, we will go with aircraft from US, we will refuel somewhere else and so on. It's the global emission that we need to reduce overall. I hope we can find more alignment on the regulatory basis.

John Arnold

Absolutely. Well, before I let you go, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Monica Normark

I mean, it's very exciting times to be able to contribute with KBR, together with our partner Swedish Biofuels to really see this growth of SAF coming. It's not one silver bullet solution that we will need so many new plants coming online to mitigate the need for the volume that we need to mitigate the climate targets that we have. I'm really looking forward to seeing some fuel coming out from our platform. I think that's very, very important because we need to scale. We can't wait anymore. I think that the urgency to move is there. I'm so happy to be able to support and proud of what we can contribute with for a sustainable solution.

I would also like to say in KBR, we have so broad capabilities in different technology areas. That is something that really, I would say, is so important because it will be integrated here. It's not only about having the best technology. We have infrastructure needs to come to play in airports, in surrounding infrastructure. We need to have an energy grid to be able to have the energy demand for us to scale up SAF or other renewable energy systems. I really think that this is something important. How can we also contribute in that kind of area, infrastructure, energy supply chain, everything from feedstock to final product.

John Arnold

Absolutely.

Monica Normark

I think KBR is very well positioned in that.

John Arnold

Big opportunity to bring lots of different capabilities and areas of expertise to scale this, what sounds like a very important solution. I'm very excited that you're on the team that's bringing it to bear.

Monica Normark

Thank you. I am very honored to be here on an amazing team in KBR. I really look forward to grow this business.

John Arnold

Well, Dr. Normark, we appreciate your time. Thanks so much for being with us. For any listeners that are interested, don't miss her next week for the Community of Interest discussion on this topic as well. Thanks again, Dr. Normark.

Monica Normark

Thank you, John, for having me.

CONCLUSION

John Arnold

Well, it's just another example of how KBR is using its expertise to bring exciting and truly meaningful solutions to market that have the potential to be true game changers in the fight against climate change.

We want to thank Dr. Monica Normark again for her time and speaking with us about PureSAF. So exciting to hear about that technology. I also want to recognize my wonderful colleague, Lubna Salim, with our KBR global marketing team for helping make this episode possible.

If you're interested in learning more about the breadth of KBR's sustainable technologies, you can find out more at our website, kbr.com. If you didn't know it, KBR also has a pretty awesome YouTube channel where you can watch a couple of excellent video series that highlight how KBR is empowering the global energy transition and meet some of the amazing people behind that. Be sure to check it out.

If you like what you heard today or have an idea for an episode, or if you just want to say hello, send us an email at inorbit@kbr.com. That, friends, is that for this episode. I want to thank you, our listeners, for spending part of your day with us today and for keeping us in your orbit. Take care.