Innovation towards sustainable technologies: A socio-technical perspective on accelerating transition to aviation biofuel

Abstract The global market based measure (MBM) for international flight emissions is poisedfor launch in 2020, creating additional pressure for improvements of aviationenvironmental performance. Due to high R&D costs and long lifecycle of aircrafts, drop-in biofuelsstand as a promising solution for addressing aviation's environmental sustainability. The transition to commercial aviation biofuelsremains stagnant, however, despite the continuing progress made in overcoming technological and economic challenges of aviation biofuels. This paper investigates the key barriers and opportunities for biofuelstransition from a comprehensive socio-technical standpoint. A multi-level perspective (MLP) system dynamics model of aviation biofuelindustry is developed to investigate the adoption process. We assess the interactive mechanisms between existing regimes, landscape pressures, and niche innovations, and propose four possible scenarios of aviation biofueladoption. From this, we provide policy recommendations and industry level strategies for accelerating the transition to aviation biofuelsthat balance environmental sustainability and economic benefits.