Washington State University’s leaders in research and development of sustainable aviation fuel, particularly at the Richland campus, are making it one of the main players at a recently unveiled facility in Everett aimed at wider adoption and production of the fuel. 

Josh Heyne, director of the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Lab, or BSEL, and research assistant professor Harrison Yang were among the WSU Tri-Cities representatives on hand at the launch of the Cascadia Sustainable Aviation Accelerator (CSAA), according to a release.

As part of CSAA, WSU Tri-Cities is partnering with Snohomish County to establish a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Research and Development Center at Paine Field Airport. It will house the world’s first SAF repository, where fuel samples will be collected, tested, indexed and distributed globally to support research and commercialization efforts. 

BSEL and its researchers have played a leading role in sustainable aviation fuel development, having tested hundreds of fuel candidate samples from roughly 40 institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia as part of efforts to support supply-chain validation, performance evaluation and federal policy efforts. Heyne is among the most cited and published researchers in his field. 

“With aviation expected to grow globally, sustainable fuels offer one of the most viable pathways for decarbonization in the next several decades” Heyne said. “Our focus here is on enabling industry to meet performance, safety, and economic targets that make commercial deployment possible.”