As if the prospect of having the entire aviation industry bidding for your services was not enough, the research team that proves itself the first to deliver commercially viable renewable aviation fuels could also soon find itself eligible for a multimillion dollar prize.

The US Department of Transport last week announced that it is to work with the X Prize Foundation, which famously awarded the $10m Ansari prize to the first private manned space flight, to develop new monetary incentives for the development of renewable aviation fuels and technologies designed to curb the sector's carbon footprint.

"The race to refuel American aviation is on and our hope is that the X Prize will jump-start investment and spur innovation," said US Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters. "It will be a competition that everyone wins, because a breakthrough in alternative jet fuels is a potential game-changer that could bring lower airline fuel costs, [and deliver] greater US energy independence, and cleaner air."

The X Prize Foundation is will now undertake a 14 month consultation with the aviation industry and independent experts as it seeks to draw up the rules for the competition and identify prize sponsors.

It said that the primary aim of the prize would be to "speed up the development and implementation of cost-effective renewable aviation fuels and technologies that have an environmental life-cycle benefit and do not present potentially negative side effects, such as the displacement of food production, or the inducement of land use changes that lead to additional greenhouse gas emissions".

Research into alternative jet fuels has already attracted considerable investment from the aviation sector, with Virgin Atlantic earlier this year undertaking the first flight of a commercial airliner powered by a mixture of biofuel and conventional fuels, and Rolls Royce and British Airways last week announcing a major new test programme to assess the viability of alternative fuels.

However, the X Prize Foundation has a strong track record of bolstering R &D spending having prompted a tenfold increase in investment in private sector research into manned suborbital space flight through its initial Ansari prize.