by Jim Harris (Bain & Co./Aviation Week) Governments are making commitments to incentivize sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)—Europe, through February’s “Toulouse Declaration,” and the U.S., with the Biden administration’s aim to have enough SAF to meet 5-10% of jet fuel demand by 2030 and 100% by 2050, including through tax credits. A growing list of nations, industry associations, airlines and manufacturers have voiced their intentions, positioning SAF to play a key role in achieving net zero.
Although still in its infancy for adoption, SAF has generated excitement as an attractive “bridge” to future technologies that may eventually include zero-emission aircraft. While SAF produces carbon emissions, many feedstocks are considered largely carbon-neutral as they “catch and release” already emitted CO2. eFuels are especially promising, given their potential to reduce life-cycle emissions by 90% compared with Jet A when combined with renewable sources of electricity and CO2.
As a drop-in fuel, SAF is mostly compatible with today’s engines and does not require costly fleet replacements. And unlike other propulsion technologies—such as electricity and hydrogen, which will be limited to short- and medium-haul missions, given energy and volumetric density limitations—SAF offers a ubiquitous option.
Several pathways are already approved at blends of up to 50%, with the feasibility of 100% SAF flights already demonstrated, including a passenger-carrying United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX. Thus, many commitments have been made by public and private stakeholders to produce and purchase SAF.
But the ugly truth is that the sky is not the limit with SAF. A recent Bain study on future aviation propulsion technologies deeply explored the technical and infrastructure challenges to producing alternative fuels, including projecting future economics for production of SAF and liquid hydrogen at scale. READ MORE
Sustainability in Aviation: Bain’s Torsten Lichtenau and SkyTeam CEO Kristin Colvile discuss sustainable imperatives and actions for the airline industry. (Bain & Co.; includes VIDEO)
Decarbonizing Commercial Aviation: Amid fast-moving mandates and supply chain turbulence, there is no clear path to net-zero aviation. But any solution will require industrywide collaboration. (Bain & Co.; includes VIDEO)
Recent advances in the sustainable aviation industry (Biofuels International)
Boeing Preaches Pragmatism in Setting Sustainability Priorities (AIN Online)
Excerpt from AIN Online: Reflecting its relatively measured projections for hydrogen power’s role in the aviation industry’s sustainability efforts over the next 10 or 15 years, Boeing continues to promote the advancement of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as perhaps the most effective way forward in the near- and medium-term. Although Airbus also advocates for the increased availability of SAF, the European company sees a more prominent role for hydrogen in the nearer term and plans to introduce a hydrogen-powered narrowbody airliner by 2035.
The extent to which the U.S. company’s view on hydrogen contrasts with that of Airbus went on display during a series of media briefings in Seattle in mid-June, as Boeing chief sustainability officer Chris Raymond called for the need to understand the “realities” and relative benefits of various alternative fuel types, including hydrogen and electric.
Reflecting on his company’s considerable experience with fuel cells and cryogenic hydrogen production over the past decade and a half, Raymond didn’t reject those avenues’ potential but cautioned that their large-scale application will require far more development time than some would suggest. He cited Boeing’s own studies on hydrogen power—including the world’s first piloted hydrogen fuel cell-powered aircraft in 2008 and an airplane powered by liquid-hydrogen combustion engine in 2012—as if to underscore the company’s knowledge of its limitations and challenges.
...
“And by the way, the white stuff that you see on there is called frost,” he added, referring to a photograph in his Powerpoint presentation. “So how are we going to deal with that at 30,000 feet? And how are we going to deal with the water that we create with hydrogen fuel cells at 30,000 feet, especially contrails, which are all coming into our vocabulary now as a component of carbon emission? We have to understand how to deal with contrail formation on a hydrogen fuel cell airplane. And we're studying that.”
Raymond also cited the lifecycle challenges associated with hydrogen production, which with the technology now available generates its own greenhouse gasses. Large-scale production of so-called green hydrogen with techniques such as electrolysis and steam methane reforming will take many years and involve an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, process.
...
Raymond noted that 50 percent of all flights don’t exceed 1,000 kilometers but they account for only 15 percent of all the fuel used. Meanwhile, roughly 10 percent of all flights extend beyond 2,800 kilometers but they account for half of all the fuel burned. Given that even Airbus acknowledges that hydrogen-powered widebodies won’t become feasible for several years after the first narrowbody propelled by hydrogen reaches the market, the role of SAF as a primary emissions reduction measure will extend far beyond 2035, argues Boeing. READ MORE
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