On September 14-15, 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hosted a two-day workshop with lead experts on aviation biofuels exploring opportunities to increase competitiveness of alternative jet fuels. The Alternative Aviation Fuel Workshop was organized in four parallel breakout sessions covering the economic and technical competitiveness, fuel conversion and scale-up, environmental sustainability and life-cycle benefits, and feedstock and product supply chains of lignocellulosic biomass based aviation biofuels. During the workshop, Wally Tyner, a professor of Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, presented preliminary results from his team's research into greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the production of soybean based biodiesel. The study focuses on biofuels-induced land use change (LUC) emissions, critically finding that emissions could be as much as 70 percent lower than previously thought (based on induced land use change emissions recently adopted by the California Air Resources Board). Tyner's team used the most recent version of the Global Trade Analysis Project model that reflects changes in agriculture and biofuel that occurred between 2004 and 2011. This model includes expanded biofuel policies as well as improvements in agriculture efficiency such as double cropping. The combination of advancing LUC emissions science and improved agricultural practices are continually increasing confidence in the real environmental benefits of biobased fuels.

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