Airlines make significant progress in use of SAF

MUSCAT: Airlines have started taking serious initiatives on the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as part of the efforts to achieve the net zero carbon emissions by 2050.According to the latest update by IATA, The OneWorld Alliance members will purchase up to 200 million gallons of SAF per year from 2027.

Shell, Accenture, and American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) are jointly launching Avelia, one of the world’s first blockchain-powered digital SAF book-and-claim solutions for business travel. It’s the largest SAF book-and-claim pilot at launch, offering around 1 million gallons of SAF.

SAF stands for sustainable aviation fuel. It’s produced from sustainable feedstocks and is very similar in its chemistry to traditional fossil jet fuel.

Using SAF results in a reduction in carbon emissions compared to the traditional jet fuel it replaces over the lifecycle of the fuel. Some typical feedstocks used are cooking oil and other non-palm waste oils from animals or plants; solid waste from homes and businesses, such as packaging, paper, textiles, and food scraps that would otherwise go to landfill or incineration. Other potential sources include forestry waste, such as waste wood, and energy crops, including fast growing plants and algae.

United Airlines has become the first US airline to sign an agreement to purchase SAF out of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. Hawaiian Airlines and Par Hawaii announced plans to join forces to study the commercial viability of locally-produced SAF. Southwest Airlines announced an investment into the SAFFiRE Renewables startup as part of a Department of Energy-backed project to develop and produce scalable SAF.

At its Doha summit, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had called for governments to urgently put in place large-scale incentives to rapidly expand the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) as aviation pursues its commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”To fulfil aviation’s net zero commitment, current estimates are for SAF to account for 65% of aviation’s carbon mitigation in 2050. That would require an annual production capacity of 449 billion liters. Investments are in place to expand SAF annual production from the current 125 million liters to 5 billion by 2025. With effective government incentives, production could reach 30 billion liters by 2030, which would be a tipping point for SAF production and utilization,” IATA said. “Governments don’t need to invent a playbook.

Incentives to transition electricity production to renewable sources like solar or wind worked. As a result, clean energy solutions are now cheap and widely available. With similar incentives for SAF, we could see 30 billion liters available by 2030. Though still far from where we need to be, it would be a clear tipping point towards our net zero ambition of ample SAF quantities at affordable prices,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General at the 78th IATA Annual General Meeting in Doha, Qatar.In 2021, irrespective of price (SAF is between two and four times the price of conventional jet fuel), airlines have purchased every drop of the 125 million liters of SAF that was available.

And already more than 38 countries have SAF-specific policies that clear the way for the market to develop. Taking their cue from these policy measures, airlines have entered into $17 billion of forward-purchasing agreements for SAF.On the producer side, Fulcrum BioEnergy announced the completion of commissioning and the initial operations of its Sierra BioFuels Plant, the world’s first landfill waste to renewable transportation fuels plant.