are just some of the products being used to make jet-fuel.

Airlines have been experimenting with biofuels for years.

But because of inconsistent investment, the lure of cheap oil, and high production costs...

Biofuels still account for less than 0.1% of total aviation fuel consumption.

While airline efforts to ramp up biofuel use may be delayed as they struggle to weather

the global pandemic, environmental impact becoming a top issue means more wide-spread

use is likely to take place in the coming years.

This is your Bloomberg Quicktake on aviation turning to biofuel.

In the past, the use of biofuels was usually driven by a lack of petrochemicals.

For example, in World War Two, there were fuel shortages in many countries as they couldn't

import as they usually would.

This led to a lot of non oil producing countries coming up with inventions to make

fuel from resources that they did have, such as grains or vegetables.

When the shortage ended, so did the interest in biofuels.

Global demand for biofuel rose when oil prices were high.

When they came back down, so did the demand for biofuel.

Nowadays, the motivation around biofuels is more around environmental reasons.

Global warming is wreaking havoc on the planet, and aviation is among the worst polluters.

With about 10,000 planes in the air at any given moment during normal times, they account

for 3% of all carbon emissions.

One economy-class, round-trip flight from New York to London is all it takes to generate

the same amount of carbon pollution as powering every lightbulb, phone, television, computer

and kitchen appliance in the average American's home for 2 months.

And it's only going to get worse.

By 2038 the number of air passengers is set to double what it is now.

Marine sector, for example, or aviation have all committed to reduce their carbon emissions.

And biofuels will play a key role for those industries which have limited other alternatives.

You can't electrify an airplane as easily as you can electrify a passenger car.

Batteries are not only extremely heavy, power output and cooling systems would have to be

improved for the requirements of taking off and landing.

Although electric-flight technology is in testing for small planes, progress on a larger

scale will likely be measured in decades, not years.

Biofuels are generally made using chemical reactions, fermentation, and heat to break

down the starches, sugars, and other molecules in plants.

The resulting products are then refined to produce a fuel that vehicles can use.

Burning biofuel from renewable sources such as waste oil, lumber, and algae produces less

CO2 than fossil fuels.

So biofuels contain a lot fewer pollutants in their chemical structure and therefore

they burn cleaner.

And because plants absorb CO2 when they're growing, this offsets the carbon that's emitted

when they're burned.

Next generation biofuels go a step further by making use of waste that humans already create.

One of the largest producers is Finnish oil giant Neste, which supplies airlines and airports

with fuel made from waste products such as fat or vegetable oil.

With a new refinery in Singapore on the way, Neste says it will have the capacity to produce

over 1 million tons of sustainable aviation fuel by 2022.

Furthermore, governments and regulators are starting to encourage the use of biofuel.

The International Air Transport Association has set a target for all airlines to reduce

carbon emissions by 50% by 2050.

Norway is even requiring airlines to use a 0.5% mixture of biofuel on all flights.

Which may not seem like a lot, but requirements that are too high can be counterproductive.

Because bio jet fuel is currently three to four times more expensive than fossil jet fuel,

airlines fueling in these countries that are enforcing blending mandates might be incentivized

to carry more amounts of fuel so they don't have to buy as much in those more expensive countries.

Carrying more fuel, makes your aircraft heavier and therefore could create more emissions.

And there are other hurdles:

if scaled up, fuel made from waste products may not have enough supply to meet demand.

And not all biofuels are environmentally friendly.

If they're made from products like corn, it can cost vast amounts of resources: water,

land, and fertilizer that causes pollution.

It can lead to food price increases or deforestation to clear the land to grow these crops.

One example of this is for palm oil, which has led to deforestation in countries such

as Indonesia and Malaysia.

This is why it's important to keep developing new technologies to diversify the feedstocks

that we can use like agricultural residues or municipal solid waste to make bio jet fuel.

For widespread use of jet biofuel, diversifying feedstocks along with government incentives

to make biofuels cost competitive with fossil fuels is needed to finally hit carbon emissions targets.

Which experts say will ultimately reduce the aviation industry's carbon footprint by

up to 80%.