Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Growing Intermediate\nWinter Oilseed Feedstocks for Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production

Ensuring an adequate supply of feedstock\nis a key challenge to\nachieving a significant production volume of sustainable aviation\nfuels (SAFs). One promising feedstock for SAFs is intermediate winter\noilseeds added to existing crop production as alternatives to the\nwinter fallow period. In this work, three intermediate winter oilseed\ncropscamelina (<i>Camelina sativa L. Crantz.</i>), carinata (<i>Brassica carinata</i>), and pennycress\n(<i>Thlaspi arvense L.</i>)are evaluated for their\nlife cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when harvested and processed\ninto hydroprocessed renewable jet (HRJ). We evaluate solvent extraction\n(SE) and mechanical pressing as alternative oil extraction methods\nand examine the impacts of various allocation methods used in the\noil extraction process. The GHG emissions reduction potential of camelina-,\ncarinata-, and pennycress-derived HRJs are 50.4%, 65.2%, and 65.7%,\nrespectively, compared to petroleum jet fuel, with SE as an oil extraction\nmethod and under mass-based allocation. Combined with the estimated\nproduction potential of camelina, carinata, and pennycress as intermediate\nwinter oilseed, 2.5 billion gallons of HRJ can be produced annually,\nand the total GHG savings could amount to 19.3 million tons when these\nHRJs replace petroleum jet fuels. In addition, we collect literature\ninformation to assess the impacts of these intermediate winter oilseeds\non indirect land use change emissions and soil organic carbon sequestration\npotentials.