Consider this: Airlines that service the United States alone burn through about 17.5 billion gallons of jet fuel a year, according to an industry trade group. Back in the early part of 2008, during a spike in gas prices, 25 airlines around the world went bankrupt or out of business, in large part due to high petroleum costs.

With gas prices again high around the nation -- and jet fuel partly responsible for record-high airfare prices -- the commercial aviation industry is investing in research and science to wean itself off of petroleum. The Northwest and two of its industrial titans, Boeing and the Alaska Air Group, have set sights on the "biomass production capabilities" of the region, and the potential this renewable resource offers in transitioning away from petroleum and powering the airplanes of tomorrow.

A new study jointly funded in part by Boeing, Alaska Air and the Washington State Department of Commerce suggests that Northwest biomass could someday help stabilize the volatile jet fuel market. Biomass won't offer a "magic antidote" or complete independence from petroleum-based fuels, the study warns. But the mind-boggling amount of biomass -- biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms -- available in the Northwest, with its millions of acres of forests, excess timber industry waste (think sawdust), biofuel-friendly agricultural crops, and even algae, makes it an attractive prospect with the potential for huge economic benefits that are sustainable, renewable and American-made.

Saudia Arabia of biofuel?

The Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest study attempts to establish a way that all of these diverse biomass sources can be utilized to create a new biofuel viable for commercial airliners. Just how much could be produced, and whether or not it is truly sustainable -- and most importantly, whether or not any manufacturing of biofuel would be cost effective -- is the subject of the study. According to the study, even producing enough fuel for the just the Northwest could be difficult, despite the Seattle Times’ assertion that the region could become “the Saudi Arabia of aviation biofuels.”

"The Northwest presents a substantial market for jet fuel," the study says, "with 865 million gallons annually consumed for commercial and military airplane use in the four-state Northwest region, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. … By 2030 that demand is projected to grow to more than one billion gallons per year."

One of the problems that has dogged biofuels since they first gained attention in 2008 -- besides supply and demand issues -- is that certain food crop-based biofuels (such as corn) can play havoc on world food prices. The biomass materials that are the focus of this study avoid that problem by targeting non-food resources, primarily algae, forest residue -- wood pulp, sawdust and other timber byproducts -- and oilseeds such as camelina, used most often in cattle feed. In theory, biomass materials could produce more than 1 billion gallons of aviation biofuel, according to the study.