Langholtz et al. (2026): Biomass carbon removal can help sustainable aviation fuels achieve on-time arrival
Matthew Langholtz, Charlotte Levy, John Field, Daniel L. Sanchez et al., IN: iScience, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.115956
Biofuels, including sustainable aviation and marine fuels, and biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) are often viewed as potentially competing pathways for advancing climate and energy goals. Their comparative economic, environmental, and temporal advantages remain debated. Rather than identifying a “best-use” for biomass, the authors show that the relative economic advantages of BiCRS versus biofuels exist along a continuum shaped by energy- and decarbonization-focused market conditions. These pathways need not be adversarial: BiCRS can enable, rather than displace, future biofuel deployment. While the lignocellulosic biofuel sector continues to face barriers associated with underdeveloped supply chains and technologies that have not yet been commercialized at scale, emerging BiCRS approaches are comparatively feedstock-flexible, rapidly deployable, and responsive to carbon removal markets.