Research Article Perspectives for Sustainable Aviation Biofuels in Brazil Luís A. B. Cortez, 1,2 Francisco E. B. Nigro, 3 Luiz A. H. Nogueira, 2 André M. Nassar, 4 Heitor Cantarella, 5 Márcia A. F. D. Moraes, 6 Rodrigo L. V. Leal, 2 Telma T. Franco, 2,7 Ulf F. Schuchardt, 8 and Ricardo Baldassin Junior 1,2 1 School of Agricultural Engineering (FEAGRI), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Avenue Candido Rondon No. 501, 13083-875 Campinas, SP, Brazil 2 Interdisciplinary Center for Energy Planning (NIPE), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), P.O. Box 6192, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil 3 Polytechnic School (EPUSP), University of Sao Paulo (USP), P.O. Box 61548, 05424-970 S˜ ao Paulo, SP, Brazil 4 Agroicone, Avenida General Furtado do Nascimento No. 740, Cj. 81, 05465-070 S˜ ao Paulo, SP, Brazil 5 Soils and Environmental Resources Center, Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC), P.O. Box 28, 13020-902 Campinas, SP, Brazil 6 “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ), University of S˜ ao Paulo (USP), Avenue Padua Dias No. 11, P.O. Box 9, 13400-970 Piracicaba, SP, Brazil 7 School of Chemical Engineering (FEQ), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), P.O. Box 6011, 13083-852 Campinas, SP, Brazil 8 Institute of Chemistry (IQ), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), P.O. Box 6154, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Luiz A. H. Nogueira; horta@unifei.edu.br Received 24 June 2015; Accepted 16 November 2015 Academic Editor: Youngbin Yoon Copyright © 2015 Lu´ ıs A. B. Cortez et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te aviation industry has set ambitious goals to reduce carbon emissions in coming decades. Te strategy involves the use of sustainable biofuels, aiming to achieve benefts from environmental, social, and economic perspectives. In this context, Brazilian conditions are favorable, with a mature agroindustry that regularly produces automotive biofuel largely adopted by Brazilian road vehicles, while air transportation has been growing at an accelerating pace and a modern aircraf industry is in place. Tis paper presents the main conclusions and recommendations from a broad assessment of the technological, economic, and sustainability challenges and opportunities associated with the development of drop-in aviation biofuels in Brazil. It was written by a research team that prepared the initial reports and conducted eight workshops with the active participation of more than 30 stakeholders encompassing the private sector, government institutions, NGOs, and academia. Te main outcome was a set of guidelines for establishing a new biofuels industry, including recommendations for (a) flling the identifed research and development knowledge gaps in the production of sustainable feedstock; (b) overcoming the barriers in conversion technology, including scaling-up issues; (c) promoting greater involvement and interaction between private and government stakeholders; and (d) creating a national strategy to promote the development of aviation biofuels. 1. Introduction Aviation is essential in modern society, transporting people and goods rapidly and safely around the world, with energy consumption essentially based on oil products. In 2011, 312 million m 3 of jet fuel was consumed globally, corresponding to 6.4% of oil refnery output [1]. In Brazil, the jet fuel con- sumption in that year was about 7 million m 3 , 75% supplied by domestic refneries [2]. Te Brazilian consumption of jet fuel is growing quickly, with an annual growth rate of approximately 5% and projected to reach 11 to 12 million m 3 by the year 2020 [3]. Fuel represents the most important operational cost for an airline. As a world average, fuel currently represents 33% of the airlines’ operational costs (compared with 10–15% in the past decade) [4], and in Brazil this burden is even higher, representing approximately 40% of the operational cost for the airlines [5]. Besides this high share of total costs, Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Aerospace Engineering Volume 2015, Article ID 264898, 12 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/264898