AEROSPACE SUPPLEMENT
CLEANER FUEL FUTURE
Andrew Allcock reviews current progress on sustainable aviation fuels
(SAFs). Less sexy than the topic of electric aircraft (p9), it is, however,
technically the nearer term solution for cleaner air travel
Our feature on p9 gives a detailed
4
overview of the interesting
developments in electric propulsion, but
the nearer term solution to reducing aircraft
emissions is greater use of biofuels, or SAFs.
According to Ilkka Räsänen, director of
public affairs at renewable diesel producer
Neste, quoted in biofuels-news.com: “Air traf c
is predicted to double during the next 15
years. The aviation industry has committed to
carbon neutral growth starting from 2020, all
while reducing net carbon emissions by 50%
by 2050 from 2005 levels. Currently,
renewable jet fuel offers the only viable
alternative to fossil liquid fuels for powering
aircrafts.” That’s not hard to understand. With
the average service-life of passenger and
freight aircraft around 21 and 33 years
respectively, were all new aircraft
manufactured from tomorrow fully electric, the
transition would take two to three decades.
But SAFs are not a new area; Virgin Atlantic
undertook the very rst biofuel ight in 2008.
The go-to of cial document on aviation
environmental matters is the European
Environment Agency’s European Aviation
Environmental Report, with the 2019 edition
being only the second such publication.
Aviation currently accounts for 3% of global
carbon emissions, something under 10% of all
transportation emissions globally, but growing.
The report states that alternatively fuelled
aircraft are unlikely to be commercially ready
before 2030. On the other hand, it says “the
last decade has seen considerable progress in
developing SAFs produced from bio-based
feedstocks that have a lower carbon intensity,
and which consequently could play an
important role in mitigating the environmental
impact of aviation”.
It notes that there are a number of
processes to produce SAF, of which six
‘production pathways’ have been certi ed for
blending with conventional aviation fuel, but
that “only a few of the ASTM-certi ed pathways
are supplying fuel on a commercial scale”.
(ASTM-compliant SAFs are effectively drop-in
replacements.)
Europe is a key player in the wider biofuel
production technology sector and has a
maximum potential output of approximately
2.3 million tonnes/year; about 4% of the total
EU conventional fossil aviation fuel demand.
But that potential is not being realised. Says
the report: “The uptake of SAF is likely to
remain limited to below 1% of total EU aviation
fuel consumption in the near future… It is
clear that the goal previously set by the group
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Sustainable fuel
Editor – Andrew Allcock MIET
Art editor – Neil Young
Sales director – Joe Opitz
Sales manager – Beverly Jepson
Circulation manager – Chris Jones
Production – Chloe Jeakins
Publisher – Jon Benson
Cover image: E-Thrust serial hybrid propulsion system – Airbus
Machinery (incorporating Sheet Metal
Industries)
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© MA Business 2019
(ISSN print 1753-0482/online 2049-
3312)
Printed in the UK by Pensord Press
Velocys Oklahoma plant
1 for producing SAFs
(Courtesy: British Airways)
/biofuels-news.com
/www.machinery.co.uk
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