Отходы лесопользования в США превращают в сырье для экологичного авиатоплива

This article is published in Business & Commercial Aviation part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), and is complimentary through Sep 10, 2026. For information on becoming an AWIN Member to access more content like this, click here. Viewpoint: Mining Forest Slash For SAF Feedstock The aviation industry has made ambitious commitments to reduce its carbon footprint, but achieving those goals depends on solving one enormous challenge: producing sustainable aviation fuel at commercial scale. One of the answers, however, may already be sitting on America’s forest floors. Across the country, millions of acres of forests face elevated wildfire risk, while forest management and restoration efforts generate slash, bark, branches, treetops, small-diameter trees, thinning material, dead trees and other woody residuals. Much of this material has little traditional commercial value and can be costly to collect, transport and manage. But to the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry, it represents something entirely different: potential feedstock. That creates an unusual opportunity to address several national challenges at once: - States and forest managers need economically viable ways to remove and utilize hazardous forest residuals. - The aviation industry needs scalable, lower-carbon alternatives to petroleum-based jet fuel. - Rural and tribal communities need sustainable sources of jobs, investment and economic development. - Renewable fuel developers need reliable, sustainable sources of feedstock. These are often treated as separate challenges. They shouldn’t be. One industry’s problem has the potential to become another industry’s supply chain. Washington State University led the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA) through a five-year, $40 million research initiative involving universities, government laboratories and private industry. Researchers studied how forest residuals in the Pacific Northwest could support a sustainable aviation biofuel industry, examining everything from feedstock and transportation to conversion technologies, environmental impacts and economic development. They didn’t just study it. They proved it could be done. NARA and its partners produced biojet fuel from Pacific Northwest forest slash, which was used in a 2016 (Alaska Airlines) commercial passenger flight from Seattle to Washington, D.C. The question is no longer whether forest residuals can help fuel airplanes. The question is why this isn’t happening at commercial scale. NARA’s research demonstrated the economic benefits. Its modeling found that a Pacific Northwest biorefinery could generate hundreds of millions in revenue and support thousands of direct, indirect and induced jobs. Think about what that could mean: jobs in forestry, collection, trucking, processing, equipment and maintenance, with economic activity flowing into rural communities. Tribal communities and governments will benefit from creating economic value from wood waste on their lands. There is an environmental opportunity, too. NARA research found significant environmental benefits from converting forest residuals into biojet fuel rather than slash-pile burning, including reductions in greenhouse-gas impacts and particulate pollution. To me, the solution seems remarkably straightforward: create a market for material that already needs to be managed. This doesn’t mean stripping forests of the organic material necessary for healthy ecosystems. Forest management must remain science-based and guided by professional foresters, tribes, public agencies, private landowners and local communities. But there is a tremendous difference between protecting material essential to a healthy forest and leaving excessive hazardous material on the landscape simply because there is no economically viable destination for it. Slash, bark, thinnings, dead trees, small-diameter material, sawmill residuals and other appropriate woody biomass can have value. The state foresters I am already working with have material that needs to be managed. Renewable fuel producers, like myself, need sustainable feedstock. One industry’s problem can become another industry’s supply chain. One industry’s demand can become another’s revenue stream. Communities across the nation will benefit from both. A functioning market for these residuals will help make forest-health projects more economically viable while creating jobs, attracting investment, generating new revenue, strengthening rural and tribal economies and providing renewable feedstock for lower-carbon aviation fuel. Most importantly, it gives more tools to address the fear families and businesses experience every wildfire season. This isn’t a silver bullet. Biomass utilization won’t prevent every wildfire. But state governments already pay an enormous price for catastrophic fires through suppression, disaster recovery, destroyed property, lost business, smoke-related impacts and damaged communities. Why not create huge value from the materials contributing to that risk? We should be using NARA’s work as a roadmap rather than starting over. The forest residuals exist. The research exists. The technology has been demonstrated. Aviation demand exists. And communities need better wildfire solutions. Instead of treating excess woody material solely as a liability, we as SAF developers have an opportunity to turn it into an asset—one that supports jobs, creates revenue, strengthens communities and helps fuel airplanes. That’s an opportunity I believe we as a nation can no longer afford to leave lying on the forest floor. Dave Smoot is the founder of Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels LLC, which is developing a project in Washington state designed to convert woody biomass and forest and sawmill residuals into sustainable aviation fuel.