The UK government-funded SAF Clearing House, led by the Energy Institute at the University of Sheffield and supported by Ricardo UK, has been officially launched. It will provide advice and support to fuel producers on the development, testing, qualification and production of new fuels entering the aviation market. All new aviation fuels must meet strict performance standards before they can be qualified as safe to use in aircraft and must undergo stages of testing in accordance with industry recognised standards. The cost and complexity of testing can be a significant barrier to new fuels entering the market and to help overcome this, the UK SAF Clearing House will provide advice to producers on testing, guidance on testing facilities and support qualification. It is now accepting applications from producers for technical support and funding.

“It is great to see there is now a lot of activity in the development of SAF,” said Professor Chris Lewis from the University of Sheffield and the new Director of the UK SAF Clearing House. “However, the increase in a diverse range of raw materials and processes means a major shift in the industry, which is both an opportunity to reduce aviation emissions but also a challenge to get these increasingly diverse SAF products to market.

“The UK SAF Clearing House, in cooperation with the EU and US Clearing Houses, will provide technical advice and information, funding to support with testing, and help in understanding how the industry works, as well as helping producers engage with the industry in a positive way. We are delighted to announce we are open for business, so please do come and talk to us.”

The clearing house is receiving £700,000 ($870,000) in government funding, with another £5.35 million earmarked to support costs associated with fuel testing.

“The UK SAF Clearing House will accelerate the testing of fuels by streamlining the process, in order to help companies get the qualification for use they need,” said Natasha Robinson, Deputy Director of Low Carbon Fuels at the UK’s Department for Transport.

“It will reduce the bottleneck in testing, ensuring a greater availability of SAF from a diverse range of feedstocks, which will enable the UK to achieve its target of 10% SAF by 2030 and will also help with the creation of new jobs and skills in this innovative green sector.”

Added Anthony Browne, Minister for Aviation and Decarbonisation of Transport: “As the UK SAF industry goes from strength to strength, it’s important it also has the capabilities to test the fuel being made, making the transition from the labs to the sky faster and easier than ever before.”

Sujith Kollamthodi, Director of Policy, Strategy & Economics at engineering and environmental consultancy Ricardo, which is supporting the clearing house, said it would be a free-at-the-point-of-use service to support fuel producers, working in collaboration with other international clearing houses and also coordinate a programme of fuel qualification with the support of aerospace original equipment manufacturers.

The University of Sheffield’s Energy Institute hosts the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Innovation Centre (SAF-IC), which provides state-of-the-art facilities to test, certify and deploy new sustainable aviation fuels. It is a development hub for the research and scaling up of SAF, offering laboratory and testing space as well as coordination and networking facilities.

Photo: University of Sheffield Energy Institute

Christopher Surgenor

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The first transatlantic flight of a commercial airliner to be fully powered by sustainable aviation fuel was conducted today by a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 on a journey from London Heathrow to New York JFK. The 88% HEFA fuel made from waste fats and supplied by Air bp was blended with 12% synthetic aromatic kerosene (SAK) supplied by US company Virent. Flight100 is the culmination of a one-year collaboration led by Virgin Atlantic involving ICF, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, Boeing and Rolls-Royce, in partnership with the UK Department for Transport (DfT). As well as proving the capabilities of 100% SAF, the flight’s non-carbon emissions will be assessed to improve scientific understanding of the effects of SAF on contrails and particulates. The DfT supported the flight with £1 million of funding and has recently awarded nine projects a combined £53 million ($67m) in a second round competition to help scale up the UK SAF production industry.

On board Flight100, which required a specific permit from the UK CAA since commercial flights are certified only to fly with a maximum 50% SAF blend,  was Transport Secretary Mark Harper. “Today’s historic flight shows how we can both decarbonise transport and enable passengers to keep flying when and where they want. This government has backed today’s flight to take-off and we will continue to support the UK’s emerging SAF industry as it creates jobs, grows the economy and gets us to Jet Zero.”

He was accompanied by Virgin Atlantic’s Chief Executive, Shai Weiss, and the airline’s founder, Sir Richard Branson.

Branson was involved in the first-ever biofuels flight of a commercial airliner in February 2008 when a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flew from Heathrow to Amsterdam with one of its four engines partly powered by a fuel made from babassu nuts and coconuts. Nearly 10 years later, the airline made a transatlantic flight using fuel made from waste gases that was supplied by LanzaTech.

Commenting on today’s flight, Branson said: “The world will always assume something can’t be done, until you do it. The spirit of innovation is getting out there and trying to prove that we can do things better for everyone’s benefit.

“Virgin Atlantic has been challenging the status quo and pushing the aviation industry to never settle and do better since 1984. Fast forward nearly 40 years, that pioneering spirit continues to be Virgin Atlantic’s beating heart as it pushes the boundaries from carbon fibre aircraft and fleet upgrades to sustainable fuels.”

Weiss said the flight proved SAF was a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived fuel and the only viable solution for decarbonising long-haul aviation. “It’s taken radical collaboration to get here and we’re proud to have reached this important milestone, but we need to push further,” he said.

The main feedstock for the HEFA (Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids) SAF supplied for the flight was tallow, a by-product of the meat rendering process and unsuitable for animal or human consumption. The SAK was made from plant sugars, with the remainder of plant proteins, oils and fibres continuing into the food chain.

Following the flight, a full end-to-end lifecycle analysis will be undertaken, accounting for the emissions reduction associated with the use of SAF and the fuel optimisation activities being deployed. Any residual emissions are being mitigated with the use of carbon removals, specifically biochar credits – a material that traps and stores carbon taken from the atmosphere.

Research on the non-CO2 emissions from the flight will help to implement contrail forecasts in the flight planning process, said Virgin Atlantic, adding the data and outcomes will be shared with industry and that the airline would continue its involvement with contrail work through RMI’s Climate Impact Task Force, which is part-funded by Virgin Unite.

Sheila Remes, VP Environmental Sustainability at Boeing, said the flight was another milestone for the two partners following on from the biofuel test flight in 2008 and was a key step in Boeing’s commitment to deliver 100% SAF-compatible flights by 2030.

Simon Burr, Group Director of Engineering, Technology & Safety, Rolls-Royce, whose Trent 1000 engines powered today’s 787 Dreamliner flight, reported the OEM had recently completed compatibility testing of 100% SAF on all its in-production civil aero engine types. “This [flight] is further proof that there are no engine technology barriers to the use of 100% SAF,” he said.

Federica Berra, SVP of Air bp, said: “Collaboration with industry partners is vital to successfully scale SAF, as is long-term policy support to foster supply and demand. Our expert team has worked for months in preparation for this flight, drawing upon their deep knowledge and skills in fuel handling, blending and logistics to ensure product quality and safety standards have been met.”

The flight has been welcomed by others in the UK aviation industry, which is relying on SAF to achieve its net zero emissions by 2050 target. “This is an exciting milestone on the journey towards aviation’s net-zero future. To ensure we achieve this shared goal, the right government policy and price support needs to be in place to see the scalability of affordable SAF to airlines; alongside the investment in and infrastructure for zero and low-emission aviation technologies like hydrogen,” said a statement by cross-sector group Sustainable Aviation.

Jonathon Counsell, Group Head of Sustainability at International Airlines Group and Chair of the UK Jet Zero Council’s SAF Delivery Group, commented: “The test flights flown prove that the aviation industry is technically ready to make the switch to SAF but what we need now is action from governments to incentivise investment and get plants into construction. And that needs to happen quickly as the UK government has committed to five plants in construction by 2025, so time is of the essence.”

The UK DfT’s Advanced Fuels Fund competition is making available around £135 million ($170m) in total for the development of SAF production plants in the UK. Winners in the first window announced last December included Alfanar Energy (Lighthouse Green Fuels project), Fulcrum BioEnergy (NorthPoint), LanzaTech UK (DRAGON) and Velocys (Altalto and e-Alto).

Winning proposals for the second window were announced this month, with funding going to nine projects. Alfanar received a second award for activity not covered by their first window award, otherwise the awards in the second round went to new projects including Abundia Biomass-to-Liquids (A-Jet UK), Arcadia e-Fuels (NABOO), Carbon Neutral Fuels (ASAP-DAC), Esso Petroleum (Solent SAF), Nova Pangaea Technologies (Project Speedbird, which is backed by British Airways), OXCCU Tech (OXEFUEL BIOGENIC), Willis Sustainable Fuels (Carbonshift PtL) and Zero Petroleum (PMZ.2).

The DfT said the fund would help deliver the upcoming UK SAF mandate that will require at least 10% of jet fuel to come from sustainable feedstocks by 2030, which it estimates would save the industry up to 2.7 million tonnes of CO2e annually.

While in the United States, Transport Secretary Harper will co-chair a SAF Investor Summit in New York.

Photo: Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 is fuelled at Heathrow with the 100% SAF supplied by Air bp before Flight100 to New York JFK

Christopher Surgenor

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London’s Heathrow Airport is making available a £38 million ($46m) fund to encourage airlines using the airport to power their aircraft in part by sustainable aviation fuel, with the incentive aimed at covering up to 50% of the extra cost of SAF compared to conventional jet fuel. The oversubscribed incentive scheme started in 2022 with six airlines participating and Heathrow is now aiming to triple the percentage of SAF used this year to 1.5% and become one of the world’s leading airport users of SAF. English airports are targeted by the UK government to be zero-emission by 2040 and a second consultation has been opened by the Department for Transport (DfT) that aims to gather more information and feedback on the scope of the 2040 goal and the route for implementation. In other UK news, the DfT has announced the five winning proposals for a share of the Advanced Fuels Fund competition, aimed at developing SAF production plants in the UK, and Birmingham Airport and ZeroAvia are to partner on zero-emission flights.

Heathrow says it is the first airport in the world to offer airlines a contribution towards making the extra cost of purchasing SAF and participants in the scheme include IAG, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, Air France, KLM and JetBlue. The airport says it is committed to progressively increasing the SAF used each year, with the aim of reaching 11% of all fuel by 2030. This year, the incentive is expected to save over 81,000 tonnes of CO2.

“Team Heathrow is now probably the biggest user of SAF in the world, but it is currently all imported,” said the airport’s outgoing CEO, John Holland-Kaye. “If Britain really wants to compete with the scale of ambition and the credible action seen from the US and Europe, supportive government policy is needed, and it is needed now.”

Heathrow says the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, which includes a tax credit scheme, “is designed to lure SAF investors to America and leaving the UK at risk of missing out on the multi-billion-pound industry.” It is calling for a Contracts for Difference price support mechanism to help cut the price premium and for the UK government to make a decision this year on committing into legislation a 10% mandate for SAF use by 2030.

“Delay could mean the UK SAF industry suffers and cannot keep up internationally,” argues Heathrow. “By delivering both, the UK will see an immediate and tangible impact – with investment, jobs and skills seen right across the UK.”

While details of the proposed SAF mandate are due to be published shortly (see article), which will require having at least five commercial-scale plants under construction in the UK by 2025 to meet the mandate’s target, the government has announced five awards under its £165 million ($200m) Advanced Fuel Fund that will allocate funding to support UK advanced fuels projects until March 2025. The grant funding is to be provided to first-of-a-kind commercial and demonstration scale projects at all development stages up to the start of construction.

With regards to a second application window for the fund, DfT is still considering whether or when further funding windows should proceed. In the event of a second application window, the competition would be open to all eligible projects and not just those already selected.

The five projects receiving funding in the first window are:

• Alfanar Energy (Lighthouse Green Fuels) – £11,001,00
• Fulcrum BioEnergy (NorthPoint) – £16,764,000
• LanzaTech UK (DRAGON) – £24,960,843
• Velocys (Altalto) – £27,000,000
• Velocys (e-Alto) – £2,523,094

Commenting on its award, Fulcrum CEO Eric Pryor said: “We applaud the UK government and the DfT for taking another step towards significantly reducing net carbon emissions for hard-to-abate sectors, including aviation, through the support of low-carbon SAF projects, including our Fulcrum NorthPoint facility. This funding furthers our engineering efforts for the plant and well positions Fulcrum for additional project funding for the facility. We look forward to bringing our patented process, technical expertise, IP and experience from the successful commissioning and initial operations of our first commercial-scale plant [in the US] to the UK to make Fulcrum NorthPoint a success.”

In December, Fulcrum announced the successful production of low-carbon synthetic crude oil from landfill waste at its world’s first commercial-scale waste-to-fuels Sierra BioFuels Plant, located in Nevada. The company’s development programme includes plants in Indiana, Texas and the NorthPoint project in the UK.

In other UK airport news, the government is keen to accelerate decarbonisation of airport operations, which would have the co-benefit of significantly decreasing harmful nitrogen and particulate matter concentrations around airports. The government’s Jet Zero strategy calls for domestic aviation to achieve net zero emissions by 2040 and for all airports in England – other UK countries have devolved powers – to be zero-emission by the same year.

According to a decarbonisation report by the UK Airport Operators Association, over two-thirds of airports in England have a zero emissions target for 2040. However, the DfT notes from responses to its first consultation in 2021 “a mixed feedback” on the target, with comments largely around why airports should be treated differently to other similar infrastructure. Some airports suggested a net zero airport operations target may be more appropriate for 2040, rather than zero emissions. On the other hand, some NGOs, environmental groups and consultancies considered the target could be more ambitious and include Scope 3 indirect emissions that an airport does not control but can influence.

The DfT subsequently commissioned Mott MacDonald to undertake a technical feasibility study to support its understanding of the achievability of the 2040 target. The study’s report, published last May, agreed that it was feasible from a technology and commercial perspective for airports to achieve zero carbon emissions from Scope 1, 2 and 3 airport operations by 2040.

The aim of the second consultation, which closes on May 2, is to clearly define which airport operations are and are not in scope, considering the emission sources and responsible entities. The government is also looking at several policy implementation options to achieve the target: a legislative requirement, a voluntary agreement or a commitment by each airport to produce a roadmap to achieve zero emissions by 2040.

“A key aim will be to guarantee that any approach ensures that the optimum outcome is achieved in terms of emissions reductions under the target, while ensuring unnecessary burden on airport operators and other stakeholders is avoided,” says the DfT.

Meanwhile, the UK’s Birmingham Airport has entered a long-term partnership with hydrogen-electric aviation pioneer ZeroAvia that will aim to make possible regular domestic zero-emission flights “in the coming years”. The airport plans to use an area near to its disused terminal building as a potential location for hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, testing and operations.

ZeroAvia is currently working on bringing to market a zero-emission system capable of flying 20-seat aircraft 300 nautical miles by 2025, making possible green air travel from Birmingham to destinations like Glasgow, Aberdeen, Belfast and Dublin. It is aiming for an emissions-free, 80-seat aircraft flying up to 1,000 nautical miles by 2027, bringing into range Mediterranean holiday destinations.

The airport said the partnership formed an important part of its journey to becoming a net zero airport by 2033, a target it set out in its carbon roadmap published in 2022.

“Birmingham Airport can be a central spoke in a green flight network in the UK, given that any domestic mainland destination will be reachable from the airport using our first systems in 2025,” said Arnab Chatterjee, VP Infrastructure, ZeroAvia. “Given the commitments of the Jet Zero strategy on domestic aviation, it is fantastic to engage with forward thinking airports that want to be early innovators and developers to deliver the vision of bringing truly clean, quiet and pollution-free flights to the UK.”

Responded the airport’s Chief Finance & Sustainability Officer, Simon Richards: “We could, quite conceivably, see the first hydrogen-powered domestic passenger flight taking off from BHX in a few years. That’s mind-blowing.”

Photo: Heathrow Airport

Christopher Surgenor

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A planned Saudi Arabian-backed sustainable aviation fuels plant in north-east England could be one of the first to start producing SAF made from household and commercial waste in the UK, following the project’s entry into the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase. The £1 billion ($1.2bn) Lighthouse Green Fuels plant, to be located in the Net Zero Teesside industrial cluster, will use gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert one million tonnes of waste into 180 million litres of SAF and green naphtha per year, the equivalent of fuelling more than 15,000 short-haul flights a year, and plans to start operations in 2027. The location has the potential to utilise the cluster’s proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure to further reduce the carbon intensity of the SAF produced. Global project development, manufacturing and engineering company alfanar has also announced it is actively evaluating other UK sites for its second and third SAF plants to be built by 2030 and 2035 respectively. To get these investments off the ground, alfanar is urging the UK government to progress its intended SAF mandate and introduce a price stability mechanism for early SAF projects.

“With the third largest aviation network in the world, and with one of the world’s largest potential offshore CO2 stores, the UK has the industrial and geological advantages to become a global leader in developing green aviation fuel with the lowest possible emissions using CCS technology,” said Mishal Almutlaq, Chief Investment Officer of alfanar. “That is why we want to build our first ever SAF plant in the UK by 2027 and two further plants by 2035.”

The Lighthouse Green Fuels project entered the FEED phase last month after awarding the FEED services contract to global industrial engineering company Worley, which will develop the existing front-end engineering package and integrate the licensor scope to provide a greater level of definition to the project. An important phase in any large construction, FEED can comprise a thorough project scope, complete project budget, total cost of ownership, implementation timeline and initial risk assessment. Being the first to reach the FEED milestone, claims alfanar, makes it the most advanced SAF project of its size in the UK.

Welcoming the announcement, UK Aviation Minister Robert Courts said: “Aviation will be central to our future growth, so it’s essential we deliver greener flying. Thanks to alfanar’s investment, the UK could be producing cleaner fuel in a few years, not only making us more sustainable, but also creating more jobs and strengthening our economy.”

The project aims to make fuel that produces 80% fewer GHG emissions than fuel from fossil sources, so saving around 300,000 tonnes per year of emissions. By potentially utilising the East Coast Cluster’s CCS infrastructure, the plant could achieve GHG savings in excess of 750,000 tonnes per year, said alfanar.

The Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, said the plant would create 700 good-quality, well-paid jobs during construction and 240 full-time roles when operational, adding: “This milestone by alfanar further strengthens our region’s position as the number one place to develop new clean energy tech.”

The project was awarded £2.4 million ($2.8m) in grant funding last December under the Department for Transport’s Green Fuels, Green Skies competition for the development of SAF production plants in the UK.

“To deliver net zero aviation, the government has already established the Jet Zero Council, has announced grant funding for SAF projects and is consulting on a Jet Zero Strategy. To continue this leadership, and to enable alfanar’s first SAF project and other similar early projects to progress, price certainty is also needed,” said Almutlaq. “We are therefore calling on the UK government to progress the SAF mandate and introduce a price stabilisation mechanism, such as a Contract for Difference for SAF.”

Teesside is the location of the UK’s first Hydrogen Transport Hub and local Teesside Airport is aiming to be the UK’s first hydrogen-ready airport. As well as its SAF production ambitions, alfanar, which has a presence in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe, said it plans to develop further green projects in the UK and beyond utilising CCS and hydrogen infrastructure.

Image: Render of proposed Lighthouse Green Fuels plant

As part of its ‘Jet Zero’ strategy to ensure the aviation sector meets the national target of net zero emissions by 2050, the UK government is considering whether to mandate the provision of standard, reliable and accurate environmental information to encourage travellers at the time of booking their flights to choose the greenest option. Such information, says the Department for Transport (DfT) in a consultation launched last month, could help passengers make more informed decisions, increase public awareness of carbon emissions and climate change, and support aviation growth in a sustainable manner. New analysis of US domestic routes by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which supports itinerary-level emissions disclosure by airlines at the point of purchase, shows the carbon footprint of different itineraries on the same route varies greatly in terms of CO2 emissions per passenger. On average the most fuel-efficient itineraries emitted 63% less CO2 per passenger than the highest emitting itinerary. Greater efficiency also tends to correlate with lower fares, which is a win-win for consumers and the environment, says ICCT.

In its consultation, the DfT reports the UK Civil Aviation Authority recently carried out a research project with consultancy BritainThinks to explore the feasibility and utility of sharing carbon information with consumers. Most participants in the study thought emissions data should be provided to inform the public about the relative impacts of flying, allow the opportunity for consumers to pick more sustainable flight options and also encourage airlines to reduce emissions. The participants considered the information should be standardised, easily accessible and have third-party vetting to encourage trust and reliability.

ICCT points out that travel search engines like Google Flights, Kayak and Skyscanner have introduced ‘eco-flight’ filters into their platforms, reflecting, it says, growing consumer interest in climate disclosure at the time of purchase.

A study which included a survey of employees at the University of California also found that when presented with hypothetical price and emissions estimates side by side, the employees expressed a willingness to pay more for a lower-emitting flight – representing about $200 per tonne of CO2e saved, which is much higher than carbon offset prices seen today. The emissions information also provided more incentives for the employees to choose direct flights from a non-preferred airport over flights with a layover leaving from a preferred airport.

The ICCT’s own study shows flights with the lowest emissions per passenger are not necessarily the most expensive. “Consumers might worry that lower-emitting flights cost more, but our analysis has shown that in most cases the least emitting flight is among the cheapest tickets on a route,” Sola Zheng, co-author of the study, told GreenAir. “With access to emissions data, consumers can opt for fewer emissions with the same amount of dollars.”

ICCT says although there are a number of online carbon calculators available, including from ICAO, that allow users to estimate CO2 emissions for origin-destination airport pairs, they do not provide specific information on carrier or aircraft type and cannot be used by consumers to choose less-emitting flights.

Its study analysed 20 frequently travelled US domestic routes, 16 of which were selected based on the high number of departures and total revenue passenger-miles in 2019. On the remaining four routes, low-cost carriers accounted for more than 60% of market share and were selected based on the number of departures in 2019 as well as on carrier diversity.

Among the analysed routes, the least-emitting itinerary on average emits 63% less CO2 than the most-emitting itinerary on the same route, with a range from 48% to 80%. The emissions gap between the most and least emitting itineraries is much wider than the airline-level fuel efficiency gap of 26%, reflecting the influence of layovers (direct vs. non-direct flights), aircraft used and variations in operational parameters like load factors. When compared to the route averages, the least-emitting itineraries are on average 22% less carbon-intensive.

In general, the data confirmed that a nonstop flight is likely to emit less CO2 per passenger than an itinerary with layovers. However, found the study, there can be relatively fuel-inefficient nonstop flights that emit more than some one-stop itineraries on the same route, so the number of stops does not always identify lower-emitting itinerary options.

The correlation between itinerary emissions and aircraft deployed is also complicated, says ICCT. Comparing the combined fuel efficiencies of multiple aircraft based on their types alone yields high uncertainties and is not easily done by an average consumer. Even for nonstop flights, the relative emissions of different itineraries using the same aircraft type vary depending on operational factors and on the other types of aircraft flown on the route. Itineraries on the same aircraft can be low-emitting on one route but high-emitting on another.

The carrier that operates the aircraft also matters. An airline may carry more passengers on a given flight, either by operating at higher load factors or via a single class service, leading to lower per-passenger emissions than other carriers flying the same aircraft on that route. “Load factors, aircraft age, congestion at a hub airport and many other factors also contribute to the different outcomes for the same aircraft type,” says the study. Despite the variation across routes, however, flights using the newest generation of aircraft types are likely to be less emitting regardless of other factors.

The study also found the lowest-emitting itinerary by a carrier sometimes emits more than the route average, indicating that loyalty to a single airline could lead a consumer to choose a higher-emitting itinerary than necessary. “There is no one carrier that operates only low-emitting itineraries (better than route average) across all the analysed routes on which it operates,” it explains. “An airline can also emit much less than airlines on one route but show the opposite emissions pattern on another route. Some airlines have more fuel-efficient operations than others on average but there is no one ‘greenest’ airline when evaluated at the route and itinerary level.”

Said Zheng: “There are no golden rules when it comes to selecting lower-emitting flights based on aircraft type or airline. For two flights from Los Angeles to Hawaii, for example, one may emit 63% less CO2 than the other on a per passenger basis but consumers currently have no access to this kind of information. Directly disclosing emissions by itinerary would be the most helpful to them.”

Emissions disclosure by airlines would raise awareness among consumers of their carbon footprint and, more importantly, reward airlines that operate more fuel-efficient flights through strategies such as deploying newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft and improving load factors, argue the authors. “Eventually, as technologies such as sustainable aviation fuels and zero emission planes fuelled by electricity and/or hydrogen become mature, emission reductions due to fuel switching and cleaner aircraft could be rewarded as well,” they add.

While in principle airlines could disclose the carbon intensity of their flights voluntarily on their own websites or other booking platforms, the authors suggest public policy would help to ensure accurate and standardised disclosure from all airlines. For example, policymakers could require carriers to disclose previous-year emissions by route and aircraft on their websites, with third-party booking sites also choosing to display independently validated and credible information to consumers.

“The flip side of voluntary behaviour change by consumers is to internalise the environmental costs of flying into ticket prices through taxation policies or market-based emissions regulations,” say the authors. “While effective, experience suggests that these policy instruments are politically difficult and may take a long time to craft and implement. Emissions disclosure, on the other hand, could conceivably be implemented in a shorter period with fewer resources because it is politically less fraught.”

Photo: Skyscanner’s ‘Greener Choices’ labels flights it believes to emit less CO2 compared to the average

Two sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects in the UK have been announced that involve British Airways, one to investigate a commercial facility that would produce more than 100 million litres per year of jet fuel made from atmospheric CO2 and the other to recycle carbon from UK wood waste and turn it into SAF. Partners on the projects include US company LanzaTech and its offshoot LanzaJet. Project AtmosFUEL is a collaboration of Canadian direct air capture (DAC) technology company Carbon Engineering, LanzaTech UK, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, and is targeting a proposed facility to be operational by the end of the decade. Also with a goal of producing 100 million litres of SAF a year, Project Speedbird brings together Nova Pangaea Technologies, LanzaJet and British Airways. Both projects were recently shortlisted by the UK government to receive funding from the ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition.

Project AtmosFUEL will examine how Carbon Engineering (CE) and LanzaTech technologies can be integrated to recycle atmospheric CO2 into ultra-low carbon jet fuel. CE’s DAC technology will capture CO2 from the atmosphere so it can be fed into LanzaTech’s gas fermentation process to produce low-carbon ethanol. The ethanol will then be converted into SAF using LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) technology that was developed by LanzaTech and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the United States. The fuel, which is claimed to offer more than a 90% reduction in GHG emissions compared to conventional fossil jet fuel, will undergo certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.

“Using DAC to make SAF presents an opportunity for unprecedented scale, a key factor when the greatest challenge we face as an industry is getting the volumes of fuel we need into planes as soon as possible,” said LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren. “We applaud the UK government’s continued leadership role in creating opportunities for bringing recycled carbon into the supply chain to enable achieving Net Zero.”

LanzaTech says its first commercial gas fermentation plant has produced over 20 million gallons of ethanol and has been working with the UK government and several industrial partners on Project DRAGON to build the world’s first commercial-scale, waste ethanol-based AtJ production facility in South Wales (see article). The fuel will be used by UK-based airlines, including British Airways and long-time partner Virgin Atlantic. The feedstock for the facility will be procured from a variety of waste sources and the facility will have the ability to also use ethanol produced from local steel mill waste gases.

From a pilot plant in British Columbia, CE has been capturing atmospheric CO2 since 2015 and converting it into fuels since 2017. In partnership with 1PointFive, which has financial backing from United Airlines (see article), CE is engineering a large-scale, commercial DAC facility in the US that will capture one million tonnes of CO2 per year.

With UK partner Storegga, CE has begun engineering and design of a proposed facility in north-east Scotland to permanently remove between 500,000 and one million tonnes of CO2 per year. It would be the first large-scale facility of its kind in Europe and the partners are aiming for it to be operational by 2026.

“These types of first-of-a-kind facilities will position the UK as a world leader in advanced low carbon jet fuel breakthroughs and will deliver significant emission reductions and rippling economic benefits,” said CE’s VP Europe, Amy Ruddock.

Virgin Atlantic’s Chief Commercial Officer, Juha Jarvinen, commented: “The involvement of two leading UK airlines as partners in this project reflects how important it is to support such innovation and the role airlines play in developing a UK-based SAF production capability. We very much look forward to working with our partners over the coming months.”

Added British Airways CEO Sean Doyle: “We look forward to pushing forward with this project, which is one of many we’re working on as we head towards our target to decarbonise and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

The airline is involved in four of the eight projects that have been shortlisted to receive grant funding under the Department for Transport’s ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition (see article).

“These plants would be a game-changer for our industry, not only delivering sustainable aviation fuel but also creating many hundreds of highly skilled jobs while increasing economic growth around the UK,” said Doyle.

Shortlisted Project Speedbird, involving LanzaJet, British Airways and Nova Pangaea Technologies, which is based in Redcar, northeast England, aims to develop the UK’s first SAF production facility to utilise UK-sourced wood waste. According to the Wood Recyclers Association, the amount of waste wood processed in the UK increased by 6% to 3.98 million tonnes in 2019.

The integrated technology platform is based on Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA patented process of converting lignocellulosic feedstocks, such as waste wood and non-food biomass, into sustainable biofuels and chemicals. LanzaJet’s technology would then convert the ethanol to synthetic paraffinic kerosene and synthetic paraffinic diesel to produce SAF and renewable diesel.

“We plan to deliver the first UK-based end-to-end sustainable value chain from UK wood waste and residues to SAF,” said Sarah Ellerby of Nova Pangaea, who was appointed CEO in January 2020 following 15 years of experience as CEO of three US companies within the energy sector.

Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of project partner LanzaJet, said: “The conversion of wood waste to SAF in the UK helps decarbonise aviation and recycles carbon from local UK wood waste. At LanzaJet, we’re in a unique position with ready and scaling technology to produce lower carbon, sustainable fuels. Our partnership with British Airways and Nova Pangaea provides a novel and important integrated solution for the UK.”

Photo: Heathrow Airport

Following closely behind the release of the European Commission’s ReFuelEU Aviation sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blending mandate proposal, the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) has opened an eight-week consultation on its own proposal for a UK SAF mandate. In common with the EU, the UK mandate would likely start in 2025 and place obligations on jet fuel suppliers but otherwise the two schemes differ in how the mandate should be applied. Whereas the EU requires suppliers to blend a minimum volume percentage of SAF with aviation fuel that rises every five years to 2050, the UK government proposes to prioritise carbon emission savings through a GHG emissions scheme issuing credits proportional to the kilograms of CO2e saved.

“A long-term obligation can generate demand for SAF, provide an incentive to SAF producers (in the form of a tradeable credit) and signal to investors the vital role the government believes the technology will play in the UK,” says the DfT in the consultation document.

The consultation seeks views on the high-level ambition and design of the proposed SAF mandate, the eligibility criteria SAF will need to meet, the interaction between SAF and other domestic and international policies, and the compliance, reporting and verification principles that will steer the subsequent development of the proposed scheme.

Commenting on the launch of the consultation, Shapps said: “There are many complexities to overcome, including how a mandate might interact with international frameworks as well as our own Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), how we set a realistic but ambitious target, and how we balance rapid sectoral growth with supporting the technologies that will be most important in the longer term.

“Some have also suggested that a mandate alone will not be enough to grow a UK SAF industry quickly. Through this consultation, we are also beginning a conversation about whether there is more we can do to provide price certainty for producers looking to build SAF plants and invest in the UK.”

Since 2018, UK SAF supply has been incentivised through the RTFO, which provides fuel suppliers with tradeable certificates for every litre of verified sustainable renewable fuels supplied for aviation in the UK. To avoid the double counting of emissions saved through SAF, the DfT proposes that any SAF supplied under the mandate would not count towards decarbonisation targets from other legislated GHG obligations, either in the UK or abroad, and aviation fuel would therefore be ineligible to receive certificates under the RTFO once a SAF mandate is in place.

The DfT reports that no SAF volumes have so far been claimed under the RTFO and stakeholder feedback has suggested the scheme does not provide an effective contribution towards the cost of producing SAF, in particular when fuel is produced through less commercially developed pathways such as biomass gasification or power-to-liquid.

“As aviation fuel is not currently obligated under the RTFO, there is a risk that without an obligation, only small volumes of the cheapest forms of SAF may be used in the UK,” it adds. “A global SAF market is also developing abroad in response to other market interventions. SAF supply and production could be prioritised in other countries under local mandates and incentives, potentially disincentivising the supply of SAF in the UK.

“Given the environmental and industrial benefits associated with SAF use and production, the government recognises the need for SAF in the short, medium and long term to contribute to delivering net zero and the UK’s carbon budgets. We are therefore keen to tackle the challenges that are preventing the development of the nascent SAF industry. As a consequence, the government is minded to mandate SAF supply in the UK.”

Importantly, rather than mandating a certain percentage of aviation fuel to be SAF over time, as proposed by the EU’s ReFuelEU Aviation initiative (see article), the government says it would prefer to implement a mandate as a GHG emissions scheme based on tradable credits that prioritised carbon savings rather than SAF volumes. This view is supported by the government/industry Jet Zero Council’s SAF Delivery Group and the scheme would prescribe a reduction in the lifecycle GHG emissions intensity of aviation fuel over time (defined as the amount of GHG emissions, on a lifecycle basis, per unit of energy and measured in gCO2e/MJ) through the use of SAF.

It is proposed 89 gCO2e/MJ, which is accepted on an international level, says the DfT, is used as the baseline lifecycle GHG emissions intensity to represent fossil jet fuel. Using this comparator, the minimum GHG saving threshold all SAF would need to meet to be eligible under the mandate should be at least 60%.

Under the proposed mechanism, jet fuel with a GHG emissions intensity below the target and which meets the proposed eligibility criteria, would be awarded a number of credits proportional to the amount of CO2e saved. Jet fuel with a GHG emissions intensity above the target or SAF which does not meet the proposed eligibility criteria would incur an obligation. The lower the GHG emissions intensity of the SAF supplied, the higher the number of credits received.

“This mechanism should encourage supply of SAF with the lowest possible GHG emissions, which we believe a fuel volume-based scheme would not necessarily do,” argues the DfT.

It is proposed the mandate would fall on suppliers of jet fuel to the UK, and “delivered fuels with the highest sustainability credentials.” To count towards the mandate obligation, the SAF supplied in the UK would have to meet DEF STAN 91-091 specifications, the recognised jet fuel specification in the UK. As this refers de facto to the ASTM international fuel standard, SAF would need to be produced through one of the pathways listed in the relevant D7566 Annex.

Only waste-derived biofuels, RFNBOs (renewable liquid or gaseous transport fuels for which none of the energy content of the fuel comes from biological sources), SAF from nuclear origin and recycled carbon fuels would be permitted to contribute towards the mandate obligation under the proposal, so SAF produced from food or feed crops would not be allowed. Feedstocks, including residues, should not be obtained from land with high biodiversity value or land with high carbon stocks in or after January 2008. SAF production must also not direct renewable electricity away from existing applications and where hydrogen is used as a process input, the hydrogen must be low carbon.

To avoid double counting, it is proposed any emission reductions claimed under a SAF mandate cannot be claimed under another GHG scheme such as the UK ETS and CORSIA, although views are welcomed on how the schemes could be used together to continue to incentivise SAF uptake. The government believes a UK SAF mandate and an EU-wide mandate implemented at similar timescales, together with the obligation being placed on all fuel supplied, would reduce the risk of tankering and carbon leakage.

The proposed mandate would start in 2025, by which time, says the DfT, the first large-scale SAF plants should become operational, both in the UK and globally. The performance of the mandate would be considered under UK SAF review points in 2030, for post-2035 uptake, in 2035 for post-2040 uptake and in 2040, for post-2045 uptake, including beyond 2050.

The government says it is likely this consultation, which runs until 19 September 2021, will be followed by a second that would reflect the findings from the first and address more fully the details of administering a mandate. It also encourages views on whether a more comprehensive policy framework is needed to build investor confidence in the UK SAF sector.

Welcoming the consultation, Andrew Morris, CFO of Velocys, which is partnering with British Airways on the municipal waste-to-jet fuel Altalto project in north-east England, commented: “SAF mandates could play an important part in enabling aviation to decarbonise. Combined with mandates, a price support mechanism that ensures stable prices for SAF will go a long way to giving investors the confidence they need to invest in UK SAF production and supply to deliver the UK’s Jet Zero ambition.”

Photo: Velocys

Eight proposed sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects have been shortlisted by the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) to share up to £15 million ($20m) in grant funding to support early-stage development of large-scale SAF production plants in the UK. All selected projects have the potential to reduce emissions by more than 70% on a lifecycle basis when used in place of conventional fossil jet fuel, said the DfT. The plants plan to produce jet fuel from a variety of sources including sewage; household and commercial waste; alcohol derived from wastes; and from captured atmospheric carbon dioxide. Organisations standing to gain from the funding include Velocys, Fulcrum BioEnergy, LanzaTech, Lanzajet, Advanced Biofuel Solutions, Alfanar Energy, Green Fuels Research, Nova Pangaea and Carbon Engineering, with a few of the projects shortlisted still at their feasibility stage.

Research carried out for the DfT indicates that by 2040 the SAF sector could generate between £0.7 billion and £1.66 billion a year for the UK economy, with potentially half of this coming from the export of intellectual property and the provision of engineering services. Between 5,000 and 11,000 green jobs could also be created across the nation and SAF production could also increase UK fuel security.

The eight projects shortlisted in the Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition are:

• Advanced Biofuel Solutions Ltd – ABSL will work with a British refinery and engineering company to produce a detailed engineering design for a new facility in Cheshire, north-west England. The plant will use gasification and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology to convert 130,000 tonnes of waste a year into aviation fuel.
• Alfanar Energy Ltd – The company’s Lighthouse Green Fuels (LGF) project, located in Tees Valley, north-east England, will use gasification and FT technology to convert household and commercial waste into around 180 million litres of SAF and naphtha. The project is currently completing design optimisation work ahead of starting the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage by the end of 2021.
• Fulcrum BioEnergy Ltd – The Fulcrum NorthPoint project, being developed at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in north-west England, will convert residual waste into around 100 million litres of SAF using gasification and FT technology. Funding will support the FEED stage of project work.
• Green Fuels Research Ltd – A joint endeavour between Green Fuels, Petrofac and Cranfield University, the FIREFLY project aims to demonstrate and certify a technology route to SAF from sewage sludge. Funding will support the project’s pre-FEED development stage.
• LanzaTech UK Ltd – Funding will support the FEED stage of a proposed facility in Port Talbot, South Wales, which is expected to produce over 100 million litres of SAF per year, using ethanol from biogenic wastes and industry flue gases.
• LanzaTech UK Ltd and Carbon Engineering – Funding will support a feasibility study into producing 100 million litres of SAF per year using Carbon Engineering’s direct air capture (DAC) technology, and hydrogen from water electrolysis to convert into SAF using Lanzatech’s gas fermentation and LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology. Project members include British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
• Nova Pangaea Technologies (UK) Ltd – Along with British Airways and LanzaJet, the feasibility project will study the optimal design to construct a facility that produces more than 100 million litres of SAF a year using UK woody residues.
• Velcocys Projects Ltd – The funding will support progress towards FEED of the Altalto project being developed by Velocys and British Airways to build a commercial waste-to-SAF plant in Immingham, north-east England, using gasification and FT technology.

The eight projects are understood to be assured of funding with the amounts to each to be announced very shortly and subject to contract. The bulk of the funding will go to those projects in the pre-FEED or FEED phase with around £2 million expected to be awarded to those in their feasibility stage. The GFGS funding period is a fixed term from August to the end of March 2022.

Sean Doyle, CEO of British Airways, which is involved in four of the projects, commented: “We’re determined to transform the sustainability of our industry and this potential GFGS government funding is critical in helping us to show the feasibility of building SAF plants. These plants would be a game-changer for our industry, not only delivering SAF but also creating many hundreds of highly skilled jobs while increasing economic growth around the UK.”

Henrik Wareborn, CEO of Velocys, which benefited from funding under the government’s £20 million F4C competition held in 2017, said: “We welcome this new funding as it will help bring Altalto closer to the production of SAF. The GFGS initiative highlights the importance of building SAF facilities throughout the country that will help the UK not only to meet the targets set but also make a quantifiable impact on climate change.”

Added Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of US-based LanzaJet, which is partnering on one of the shortlisted projects with British Airways and Nova Pangaea, said: “Together, we are grateful to the Prime Minister and DfT for their support in advancing the production of SAF in the UK.”

The Green Fuels Research (GFR) project with Petrofac and Cranfield University will demonstrate an integrated route to SAF using sewage sludge as feedstock and encompasses engineering design and construction of a UK demonstration plant capable of generating the quantities of fuel to allow certification to international standards. This in turn, says GFR, will lead to a first-of-a-kind commercial refinery and roll-out to several locations where airports, pipeline terminals and wastewater treatment works are in close proximity. The company says around 53 million tonnes per annum of untreated sewage sludge are collected in the UK from about 8,500 wastewater treatment works.

Commenting on the competition announcement, Green Fuels CEO James Hygate said: “We’re delighted to have this opportunity to prove the environmental and commercial viability of the FIREFLY route, which integrates several existing technologies into a sustainable industrial process. Among many advantages, FIREFLY will use fully biogenic feedstock which will emit no fossil carbon, won’t contribute to deforestation or compete with food production, and will not rely on imports with long, high-emission supply chains. And perhaps most importantly, we expect to demonstrate exceptional carbon savings, meaning this is potentially a very fast route to decarbonising aviation that won’t rely on as yet unknown technologies.”

The competition has been managed by consultants Ricardo and once the funding has been distributed, it will monitor the eight projects on behalf of the DfT.

“We have been amazed by the diversity and creativity of the entries,” said Alexandra Humphris-Bach, Ricardo Principal Consultant. “All the selected projects have a clear potential to produce SAF capable of reducing emissions by more than 70% on a lifecycle basis, when used in place of a conventional fossil jet fuel.”

The UK’s Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “Aviation will be central to our future growth and plans to build back greener from the pandemic, which is why we have invested over £20 million in the past year to decarbonise the sector in line with our world-leading net zero targets.

“With less than 100 days to go until COP26, we’re ramping up our efforts even further to help companies break ground on trailblazing waste to jet fuel plants and put the UK at the forefront of international SAF production.”

Photo: British Airways is involved in four of the eight shortlisted projects