With the EU about to activate its sustainable aviation fuel blending mandate, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has released an assessment of Europe’s preparedness to deliver required volumes of SAF up to 2030. The blending requirement will escalate from a minimum 2% of jet fuel composition by the end of 2025 to 70% in 2050 for supplies dispensed at airports across the EU’s 27 member states. EASA concludes that by 2030, when the blending mandate reaches 6%, there will be sufficient European production of SAF through multiple pathways to meet the requirements of the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation, which governs the mandate. But it warns rapid action is needed to ensure that a sub-target, initially 0.7%, is achieved for the use of increasingly important synthetic aviation fuels, or e-fuels.

The EASA report, titled ‘State of the EU SAF market in 2023’, examines the capacity of member states to produce the new fuels during the next five years, based on an assessment of the sector’s performance in 2023 and the addition of updated projections. The report, EASA’s first on this subject, also provides real or estimated reference prices for multiple types of current and future aviation fuels and outlines emerging trends in European SAF production.

“This first report on SAF provides a comprehensive analysis and valuable insights to the potential of sustainable aviation fuels for commercial airline operations in Europe,” commented Maria Rueda, EASA’s Strategy and Safety Management Director. “It will be a key component on the journey towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly aviation sector.”  

EASA says the minimum SAF volume required by 2030 under the ReFuelEU Aviation (RFEUA) programme is around 2.8 million tonnes based on forecast jet fuel consumption of 46 million tonnes and a mandated blending level which, by then, will be at least 6%.

But it qualifies that the SAF production market is “inherently volatile”, impacted by factors including high capital expenditure, feedstock supply chain limitations and the risks to investors of supporting technologies in their early stages. “While many projects are announced,” adds EASA, “some may not reach commercialisation.”

The report presents three scenarios for SAF production in EU countries: Operating, Realistic and Optimistic.

The ‘Operating’ scenario covers only those facilities currently producing SAF, which are expected to deliver just over 1 million tonnes of product by 2030.

The ‘Realistic’ assumption estimates 3.2 million tonnes of SAF will be produced and distributed by facilities already operating, under construction or with small pilot plants either activated or being built. This includes co-processing of SAF in existing refineries.  

The ‘Optimistic’ case predicts 5.5 million tonnes, including pipeline production from projects which have announced elements including technology, feedstock, SAF capacity, commissioning year, location and technical partners, but are yet to be built.

“The Realistic case led to the exclusion of facilities which had not gone through final investment decision (FID) at the time of assessment,” says the report, singling out e-fuels as an example.

“There is a strong pipeline of synthetic aviation fuel projects in the EU, estimated at 1.1 million tonnes by 2030, but at the time of assessment none of these facilities had gone through FID. They were therefore not included in the realistic capacity estimation.”

The report says the hydrotreated esters and fatty acids (HEFA) process, which encompasses converted vegetable oils, waste oils, greases and fats, is the major SAF production pathway, supported by additional supplies through co-processing facilities.

It adds that immature technology for other SAF production pathways including Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) prevented them from delivering commercial volumes of the fuel during the study reference year, 2023.

As well, says EASA, the AtJ process of converting alcohols into SAF disqualifies the fuel in the EU because the alcohols are fermented from food crops including corn and sugarcane. 

Additional pathways, including Sun-to-Liquid (StL) and Hydrothermal Liquidation (HtL), are also under development. “However,” says the report, “they remain immature, with only a couple of pilot plants announced, and their contribution to commercial SAF volumes is projected to be negligible by 2030.”

Synthetic aviation fuel is required to comprise at least 1.2% of jet fuel makeup by 2030, which EASA calculates to be a 600,000-tonne requirement. Also known as Power-to-Liquid, or PtL, this process combines water with renewable electricity to extract green hydrogen, which is then combined with captured CO2 to create SAF and other products such as renewable diesel.

“Within the EU,” says the EASA report, “more than 15 synthetic aviation fuel production facilities have been announced, primarily in countries with considerable renewable electricity capacity or infrastructure.”

However, it adds, the requirement for large volumes of renewable electricity, the costs of producing the power and limited sources of eligible carbon in many key locations drives up the costs of e-fuels.  

“The resulting production price is currently non-competitive with other forms of SAF production, particularly HEFA. Therefore, the development of synthetic aviation fuels is likely to be driven by the RFEUA sub-mandate that requires their supply.”

Of eight current or future aviation fuel categories, the report lists market prices or production cost estimates in 2023, reflecting vast premiums for non-fossil product. EASA used price reporting agency (PRA) references to provide benchmarks for price assessments or a basis for estimates.

“Whereas 2023 prices for conventional aviation fuels and aviation biofuels were available through multiple PRA indexes,” said EASA, “the market for other RFEUA aviation fuel types was either non-existent or not yet liquid enough to determine actual reference market prices for 2023. For these fuel types, a bottom-up production cost estimation was developed to provide indicative results.”

The report listed the average 2023 market price of conventional aviation fuel at €816 ($850) per tonne and aviation biofuels at €2,768 ($2,880) per tonne, the latter with an estimated production cost of €1,770 ($1,840) per tonne.

Because none of the other fuel categories had a market price in 2023, production cost estimates were produced by EASA.

Production costs for recycled carbon aviation fuels were estimated to average €2,125 per tonne, while advanced aviation biofuels averaged €2,675 per tonne, low carbon hydrogen for aviation averaged €4,700 per tonne, synthetic low carbon aviation fuels averaged €5,300 per tonne and renewable hydrogen for aviation averaged €6,925 per tonne.

But by far the largest estimates were those for synthetic aviation fuels, the average production cost of which EASA lists as €7,500 per tonne.

The same average estimate – €7,500 per tonne – also applied to synthetic fuel produced with CO2 captured at the industrial source of emission or that made from biogenic CO2.

The most expensive production cost estimated was for fuel produced with CO2 captured from the atmosphere, averaging €8,225 per tonne – more than 10 times the 2023 average market price of conventional jet fuel.

“To be able to meet the synthetic aviation fuel minimum shares, announced synthetic aviation fuel facilities would need to reach FID within the next couple of years,” says the EASA report.  

“On top of this, continuous scale-up in SAF capacity would be needed to comply with RFEUA by 2035, as the minimum SAF share required increases from 6% to 20% by that date.”

The report, developed with the support of consultancy ICF, is a precursor to a first EASA annual technical report due in 2025.

Photo: OMV

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

• Linkedin

As calls for action increase over the climate impacts of aircraft contrails, airborne research is intensifying with the expansion of two key projects in Europe and the US. In Germany, Lufthansa has started converting an Airbus A350-900 for use as a flying research laboratory as part of IAGOS-CARIBIC, a long-running European programme that uses commercial airliners to gather data on air quality for scientific evaluation. The A350 will be equipped with around 20 measuring instruments for a multi-year project beginning late next year to measure trace gases, aerosol and cloud parameters on selected long-haul flights. In the US, engine manufacturer GE Aerospace and NASA have just completed two flights with a Boeing 747 testbed aircraft to record three-dimensional imaging of contrails to better understand how they form and behave in certain conditions. The 747’s emissions were scanned using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology installed on a following aircraft.

IAGOS (In-Service Aircraft for a Global Observing System) is a European programme established in 1994 to assess atmospheric composition, air quality and climate, using commercial jets as research platforms. There are currently 10 widebody Airbus A330 and A340 family jets from seven airlines deployed in the project, with another 10 having previously been used, again from seven participating airlines.  

The Lufthansa A350 selected for the IAGOS programme, registered D-AIXJ, is almost seven years old, and will add a new-generation airliner to the research fleet.

A measuring laboratory weighing two tonnes is being developed for the next phase of the programme, and once fitted with some 20 instruments, will be installed in the cargo hold of the A350 on selected scheduled flights from late 2025.

The onboard laboratory will be connected to the air intake system on the jet’s outer fuselage through permanently installed pipes, and used to measure over 100 trace gases, aerosol and cloud parameters from the ground up to the tropopause atmospheric region, at altitudes between nine and 13 kilometres.

The IAGOS programme is led by the Jülich Research Centre, one of Europe’s largest research organisations, which combines the expertise of global partners in weather services, airlines and the broader aviation sector.

The programme combines the complementary concepts of two research projects: MOZAIC (Measurement of Ozone, Water Vapour, Carbon Monoxide and Nitrous Oxides by Airbus In-Service Aircraft), which was funded by the European Commission between 1993 and 2004, and CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container).  

Lufthansa, which with Air France was an IAGOS launch partner in 1994, has gathered climate-related data for research on more than 35,000 of its passenger flights over the three decades.

Together with the Jülich Research Centre and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Lufthansa Group has fitted a total of six Airbus aircraft with measuring equipment since the programme was inaugurated to collect information about atmospheric conditions during scheduled flights.

Lufthansa currently has two aircraft, an A330 and an A340, deployed in the programme, as well as another A330 from sibling airline Eurowings Discover.

On December 9, the Eurowings jet was used to gather climate data during a 10-hour, 45-minute flight from Frankfurt to Orlando, Florida. The information was collected continuously while the aircraft flew at an altitude of more than 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) over a distance of 7,600 km.

Other airlines currently participating in the programme are Taipei-based China Airlines, with two A330s, and Air Canada, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Hawaiian and Iberia, each with one A330.

After each flight, climate information gathered by the aircraft is sent automatically to the database of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Toulouse, France, from where it is accessible for global research.

The data is currently used by about 300 organisations worldwide to provide fresh insights into climate development and atmospheric composition and help refine climate models and improve weather forecasting.

“We are proud to have been able to make a significant contribution to climate research for 30 years,” said Lufthansa Group’s Chief Technology Officer, Grazia Vittadini. “Through our commitment, we are helping to sustainably improve climate models and weather forecasts. Scientifically-sound findings are the basis for targeted measures on the path for more sustainable aviation.”

GE/NASA contrail research flights

In the US, GE Aerospace and NASA have built upon a 50-year collaboration by performing two research flights for their Contrail Optical Depth Experiment (CODEX) in which three-dimensional imaging was generated of contrails created by GE’s Boeing 747-400 Flying Test Bed aircraft.

The 747 was trailed by a G-111 aircraft from NASA’s Langley Research Centre in Virginia, which deployed Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology to scan the wake of the larger jet, enabling researchers to use new imaging to better understand how contrails form and behave.

During the flight tests, 3D images were generated of contrails from all four CF6 engines on the 747. GE Aerospace was also able to isolate the contrails from a single engine on the test jet.     

The flights expanded the company’s capabilities ahead of flight tests it is planning during this decade to assess the performance of new commercial aircraft engine technologies, including Open Fan, advanced combustion designs and other propulsion systems.  

“Understanding how contrails act in flight with the latest detection technology is how we move innovation forward,” said Arjan Hegeman, GE Aerospace GM of Future Flight Technology. “These tests will provide critical insight to advance next generation aircraft engine technologies for a step change in efficiency and emissions.”

Dr Rich Wahls, manager of NASA’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership, welcomed participation “on this first-of-its-kind flight experiment” in helping to reduce the impact of contrails.

“NASA is advancing the scientific understanding of contrails to improve our confidence in future operational contrail management decisions that consider overall climate impact and economic trades,” he said.

NASA, German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and contrail forecasting and management company SATAVIA, are also working together on atmospheric forecasting to identify the best conditions for studying the formation of contrails. SATAVIA was recently acquired by Aerospace Carbon Solutions, a division of GE Aerospace.

In this collaboration, DLR will help to identify the altitude and dimensions of contrail-forming regions, so that flight tests can be conducted using the LiDAR technology to improve contrail prediction, while SATAVIA will use the flight test results to validate and improve its numerical weather prediction capability, used to forecast contrail formation conditions.

At this year’s Farnborough Airshow, the chief technology officers of GE Aerospace, Boeing, Airbus, Dassault, Rolls-Royce, RTX and Safran called for government support to expand research that enhances scientific understanding of aviation non-CO2 effects such as contrails, nitrogen oxides, sulphur, aerosols and soot.

Top photo: The first IAGOS system has been in use on a Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 since 2011

Bottom photo: GE Aerospace’s 747 Flying Test Bed

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

• Linkedin

A global coalition of around 50 scientists specialising in climate and aviation-linked disciplines has signed an open letter warning of the warming impacts of aircraft contrails and calling on global decision-makers to urgently address the problem. Among the signatories is Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a Belgian climatologist and former vice chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Contrails are the most significant of aviation’s non-CO2 effects, said the scientists in their letter. The communiqué was published by Brussels-based climate advocacy group Transport & Environment (T&E), which has also just released a report recommending deviating flight paths that it claims would halve the number of warming contrails by 2040, with a climate benefit substantially larger than the impact of the CO2 emissions caused by the extra fuel burn.

Contrails are formed when vapour and particles of soot emitted from aircraft engines freeze into ice crystals in certain conditions and regions to create clouds that can trap heat.

“Global aviation traffic doubled between 2005 and 2019, and its CO2 emissions grew by 40%,” said the scientists in their letter, “and that just covers part of the problem. Planes cause much more warming than just through their CO2 emissions. Non-CO2 effects of aviation, such as nitrogen oxides and contrails, warm the planet at least as much as aviation’s CO2.

“Most contrails dissolve within a few minutes, but in certain conditions they can persist in the atmosphere, spread out and become artificial cirrus clouds with a net warming effect. The climate impact of these effects has been known for more than 25 years.”

But despite this knowledge, said the scientists, little has been done to address the problem.

“We, aviation and climate scientists, call upon global decision-makers to implement solutions to tackle non-CO2 effects of aviation on top of decarbonisation efforts,” they said.

“This starts by better awareness-raising of the general public. Airline passengers should be informed of the full climate impact of flying when booking a flight and companies performing business flights should include non-CO2 in their corporate reporting.”

As well, said the scientists, large-scale tests should be performed of contrail avoidance measures, supported by research and backed by government policies and monitoring designed to reduce warming contrails and other non-CO2 impacts of aircraft.

“This is a ‘no regrets’ approach that will help to slow climate change by a significant margin,” the scientists said. “Delaying action would be a critical error.”

Their letter closely follows the release of a Transport & Environment report, which states that by “tweaking the flight plans of only a few flights”, contrail-induced warming could be halved by 2040.  

The report says the net warming effect of aircraft contrails was “at least as important” as the damage caused by CO2 emissions from aircraft and that just 3% of flights produce 80% of contrail warming. It argues contrail reductions could be achieved simply by changing flight plans slightly to avoid conditions known to cause the phenomenon.

Such a strategy would marginally increase fuel consumption, said T&E, but would still deliver greater environmental benefits by preventing contrail formation.

“Changing flight paths to avoid contrails will only happen on a very small number of flights, and only for a small part of the journey,” says the report, adding that the climate benefits of from avoiding the most warming contrails would exceed the CO2 penalty of rerouting the plane by a factor between 15 and 40 times.

“The extra fuel burnt to avoid contrails would be less than 0.5% on the whole fleet over a year. And on those few flights where rerouting will happen, 80% of the contrail warming of the flight can be avoided with an extra fuel burn of 5% or less.”

The study conservatively estimates that slightly changing the flight path of a Paris – New York flight to avoid contrail formation would cost less than €4 per ticket, covering extra fuel used for the diversion and the use of associated technologies including humidity sensors and satellites.

Commenting on the report, T&E’s aviation technical manager, Carlos Lopez de la Osa, said some in aviation “overstate the scientific uncertainty of warming contrails – but the climate benefits of contrail avoidance are huge, and solutions are improving by the day.

“The aviation industry is being offered a simple and cheap way to reduce its climate impact. By identifying the very few flights that cause warming contrails and then tweaking their flight paths, we can have an immediate effect on contrails warming. So let’s no longer discuss whether we have to do it, but how to do it.”

Photo (T&E): Contrails, short for condensation trails, are created by aircraft flying through cold and humid areas of the atmosphere

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

• Linkedin

A new study by UK-based consultancy CFP Energy has identified a significant divergence of strategies to decarbonise aviation in the UK, France and Germany, and serious impediments to the industry’s ability to reach its net zero emissions targets. The report, ‘Decarbonising the Future: Navigating ETS Reforms and Net Zero Solutions’, was based on surveys of chief financial officers and risk management professionals of more than 500 organisations in high-emission industries including aviation, shipping, construction, data centres and manufacturing. The study reflected strong uptake of measures including biofuels, green certificates and voluntary carbon credits. But of the aviation operators surveyed in the UK and Europe, 95% of respondents expect a rise in carbon allowance demand, while funding limitations and insufficient access to new technologies are highlighted as key barriers to progress.

“Between funding issues, regulations, knowledge gaps and a lack of technology, large-scale organisations face a mountain of issues to overcome,” said CFP Energy’s COO, Catherine Newman, commenting on the report.     

The survey, commissioned by CFP and conducted by London-based research group 3Gem before the UN’s recent COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, focused on the urgent push to reduce carbon emissions, particularly in Europe, where intensified regulations and steep decarbonisation targets have been announced. In the aviation sector, respondents included airlines, airport operators and associated businesses.  

Central to the survey was the European Union’s ‘Fit for 55’ reform programme, developed to reduce carbon emissions by enacting measures including the EU Emissions Trading System, which since 2012 has imposed ever-increasing limits on emissions from intra-Europe flights.

After Brexit, the UK introduced its own ETS, while France and Germany adopted customised approaches to reach net zero carbon emissions, complicating compliance for airlines operating in these markets.

A key concern for carriers that responded to the survey is the rapid reduction in free carbon allowances, which are due to be phased out in 2026, and both the scarcity and cost of future concessions. Based on 2010 benchmarks, airlines have previously received up to 82% of their carbon allowances for free. But this year they have been reduced by 25%, and next year will come down by 50% before they are abolished and replaced with a full auction system.

As well, the EU is considering expanding its ETS obligations by 2027 to also include non-CO2 emissions such as nitrous oxides and soot, both key elements of warming contrails produced by aircraft in specific conditions and coming under increasing global scrutiny.

The study found 95% of airline respondents in the UK and Europe expected a rise in demand for carbon allowances, but also identified significant barriers to their decarbonisation ambitions, with 61% highlighting funding limitations and 60% the insufficient availability of new technologies to help them reduce their carbon emissions.

As well, 54% of respondents identified knowledge gaps as impediments to reducing emissions, and 53% cited regulatory complexities.

But aviation operators still continued to pursue other decarbonisation technologies and products, the most popular being biofuels (53%) and voluntary carbon markets (51%), followed at 48% by power purchase agreements and green certificates (44%). The industry also indicated significant interest in alternative fuel sources, particularly hydrogen.      

Most respondents to the survey (90%) said they had produced a plan to transition their businesses to net zero operations, through there were marked differences between the UK, Germany and France among those who said they were not meeting targets.

Of total respondents, 13% of those with transition plans were falling short of their targets. In France, 17% said they were underachieving, while in Germany 7% were behind.

“What is most interesting,” said Newman, “are the barriers that industry stakeholders attribute to holding their respective sectors back.

“We hope this report provides business leaders with actionable solutions to tackle decarbonisation amidst volatile conditions. The solutions to decarbonise exist, we simply need to provide better access to them.”

Tim Atkinson, CFP Energy’s Director of Sales and Structuring, said it was vital that businesses focused on changes needed to comply with evolving environmental regulations.  

“It’s encouraging to see many of the survey participants are planning for rises in future ETS carbon prices and taking advantage of the flexibility carbon markets offer to manage rising compliance costs whilst technology challenges are addressed,” he said.

“It has never been more important for businesses to ensure they are prepared for the paradigm shift of tougher targets and higher carbon prices that is set to impact both the UK and EU emissions trading schemes over the next five to 10 years.”

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

• Linkedin

Watershed, an international platform which helps some of the world’s biggest corporations to measure, report and reduce their carbon emissions, has facilitated the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc) by four major companies to help them compensate for emissions created by their corporate air travel. The deals were arranged through the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), for BlackRock, a global investment, advisory and risk management group, and financial and corporate technology companies Ripple, Samsara and Block. The SAF associated with their certificates will be allocated to US carrier Alaska Airlines, a founding member of SABA, while the four companies will be able to claim environmental attributes of the fuel as contributions to their own emission reduction targets.

Watershed measures total carbon emissions across all areas of corporate operations, then consolidates data to provide a detailed account of emissions for reports to shareholders, regulators and other stakeholders.

It also identifies and helps deliver remedial actions, as it has in this case through its partnership with SABA, for which it aggregates corporate demand for SAFc, leading to procurement and delivery of authenticated, high-integrity supplies to airlines.

The four purchases it has just announced, while not specifically quantified, are linked to a collection of deals announced by SABA earlier this year which are expected to attract SAFc commitments valued at $200 million, equating to approximately 50 million gallons of the fuel.

The SAF will be sourced from four fuel suppliers over five years and, fully deployed, is expected to reduce CO2 emissions from aircraft by approximately 500,000 tons.

Claire Kiely, Head of Watershed Marketplace Carbon Supply, said collective purchasing deals such as the four just announced represent “a compelling demand signal” to help increase supplies of SAF.

“Watershed consolidates our customers’ demand for high-impact, low-carbon technology like sustainable aviation fuel, then works with SAF suppliers, airlines and experts through SABA to meet that demand and grow an essential new sector,” she said.

“By participating in this historic investment, Watershed customers are providing a powerful demand signal for SAF and affirming the role SAFc will play in corporate emissions reduction initiatives.”

Alaska Airlines, the end user in the Watershed SAFc deal, is a leading proponent of multiple decarbonisation technologies, including SAF, hydrogen-electric propulsion and all-new aircraft designs.

The carrier’s scale has just increased with approval of its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, which, while it will continue to operate as a separate brand, potentially offers further opportunities to broaden deployment of SAF under the group umbrella, in addition to its own plans for the fuels.

“Alaska Airlines is all-in on advancing the market for sustainable aviation fuels, a critical element in the path to decarbonise aviation,” said Diana Birkett Rakow, the company’s SVP Public Affairs and Sustainability.  

“We are one of the founding members of SABA’s Aviators group because we know that we will only reach our destination if we’re tackling this challenge from all angles – business, policy, financing and more. Investing in SAF alongside partners like Watershed, BlackRock, Ripple, Samsara and Block helps us scale up use.”

BlackRock has highlighted “a massive reallocation of capital” as the low-carbon economy continues to evolve globally with new technologies, changing consumer and investor preferences, and shifts in government policies.

Ripple’s VP Social Impact and Sustainability, Ken Weber, said joining the corporate push to boost SAF use was also an important step for his company in reaching its target of net zero carbon by 2030.

“Through collaboration with Watershed and SABA we are not only supporting the growth of SAF but also empowering other companies to take similar meaningful steps in reducing their emissions footprint,” he said.

Kim Carnahan, Head of SABA’s secretariat and CEO of the Center for Green Market Activation, said aggregator partners such as Watershed were critical in helping accelerate the growth of green commodity markets.

“By consolidating demand among its customers, Watershed is helping SABA send a larger demand signal to the SAF market while enabling us to welcome a new set of leading corporations,” she said.

SABA was founded by the Environmental Defense Fund and Rocky Mountain Institute and is supported by the Center for Green Market Activation. Among SABA’s founding members are corporations including Bank of America, Boeing, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, JP Morgan Chase, McKinsey & Co, Microsoft, Meta, Netflix and Salesforce.

Photo: Alaska Airlines

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

• Linkedin

Two evolving Nordic e-SAF projects have been simultaneously boosted as the region ramps up a range of initiatives to progress lower-emission air transport. In Finland, clean technology group Liquid Sun has raised almost €4 million ($4.2m) in fresh seed funding to construct an e-SAF production testing facility. As Finland’s first pre-commercial e-SAF demonstrator plant, it will initially be housed in a 66-square-metre shipping container. Meanwhile in Denmark, renewable energy investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Copenhagen and Aalborg Airports and SAS Scandinavian Airlines have signed a collaboration agreement to support e-SAF production by Fjord PtX, an emerging renewable fuels business led by CIP, and to advocate for a Danish SAF sector. A new facility is due to open in late 2028.

Both projects will rely on renewable electricity produced in Nordic nations to help create green hydrogen, which, when combined with reprocessed carbon dioxide, will be used to create e-SAF and other non-fossil-based products.

Liquid Sun has been backed by investors including Voima Ventures, Failup Ventures and Business Finland as it pursues industrial-scale production using a new low-temperature electrolysis system. The company says its technology can be integrated into existing SAF infrastructures to enable price parity with fossil fuels, which, if verified, would address one of the biggest impediments to SAF uptake – its cost.   

As well as having access to abundant supplies of renewable electricity, says Liquid Sun, significant biogenic CO2 can be sourced from the Finnish forestry industry, providing the company with “an unexpected competitive advantage” not just in e-SAF production, but in making Finland a leader in the sector.

“Securing significant funding and oversubscribing the investment round in such a challenging market situation demonstrates that Liquid Sun has proven in a very short time to be a serious player in the e-fuel market,” said the company’s Chairman, Samuel Thesleff.

“Now the real work starts as we start scaling up the production of e-SAF to an industrial scale to help drive Finland towards its emission reduction goals and a cleaner future.”

“The Nordic region is uniquely positioned to take a leading role in e-SAF production,” added Pontus Stråhlman, a partner in Voima Ventures, the lead investor in the latest funding round.  

“There is an abundant renewable energy supply, supportive industry efforts and strong government backing. We firmly believe in Liquid Sun’s ability to open an entirely new market for more sustainable aviation.”

Co-investor Failup Ventures, a Finnish-US collaboration, describes itself as an investor “backing future leaders who create impact in society.”

“We’re excited to invest in Liquid Sun because they’re tackling one of the toughest problems out there – creating sustainable fuels for a cleaner future,” said Topias Soininen, General Partner, New York, for Failup Ventures. “This is exactly the type of work we love to support.”

In Denmark, renewable energy investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), SAS and Copenhagen and Aalborg airports have signed a collaboration agreement to help accelerate local e-SAF production.

They are supporting Fjord PtX, a new Power-to-X project based in Aalborg, North Denmark, which will deploy electrolysis technology at the 200-400 MW level to produce e-fuels including synthetic SAF.

The project, backed by CIP, plans to annually recycle 330,000 tons of CO2, mostly sourced from the Nordværk waste-to-energy incineration plant, to produce up to 75,000 tons of SAF, equating to 250% of the fuel required for Denmark’s domestic flights.

Construction of the new e-SAF plant will commence next year on a 20-hectare site near the Port of Aalborg, with production expected to begin in late 2028.

The renewable energy for the plant will be wind and solar generated, while the CO2 to be captured and repurposed by Fjord PtX is estimated to equate to the emissions produced by 17,000 houses.

As well as producing e-SAF and e-naphtha, excess heat from the new plant will be redirected to provide emission-free heating to around 11,000 houses in the Aalborg municipality, adding further value to the project.

The four partners will also work to build public awareness and regulatory support to speed the transition to a low carbon economy and demonstrate how it is possible to develop a ‘sustainability valley’ in Denmark, and more broadly across Scandinavian countries.

“We have been developing our project for the past three years,” said CIP partner Søren Toftgaard. “We urge European and Danish governments and authorities to step up by providing clear and supportive schemes, which will be key for the ramp up of this new industry. With the right frameworks in place, this partnership and Fjord PtX can become a cornerstone of Denmark’s sustainable future.”

“Our partnership combines expertise to drive shared sustainability goals,” added SAS President and CEO Anko van der Werff. “This agreement sets a strong foundation for our project, underscoring our commitment to an urgent transition. The opportunities ahead are simply too valuable to miss.”

“To achieve net zero emissions by 2050, it is essential to begin producing new fuels as soon as possible,” said Christian Poulsen, CEO of Denmark’s largest airport company, Copenhagen Airports.

Aalborg Airport’s CEO, Niels Kjær Hemmingsen, commented: “Aalborg is the ideal location for Fjord PtX, as it provides the essential resources needed to drive sustainable development. For Aalborg Airport, this collaboration is a key step towards fulfilling our ambitious sustainability goals.”

Photo: The site of the Danish Fjord PtX project under development by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners that aims to produce e-SAF

Following shortly after a similar offtake deal with US e-SAF startup Twelve, International Airlines Group (IAG), the owner of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL, has announced a 10-year agreement to purchase power-to-liquid aviation fuel, or e-SAF, from California-based Infinium. The volume and value of the deal were not disclosed, but the e-SAF will be produced at the clean-tech company’s Project Roadrunner plant, a former gas-to-liquids facility currently being converted in West Texas. Infinium says the plant will become the world’s biggest e-SAF facility once it is fully operational. The company has backing from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, and in September it raised a potential $1 billion through Brookfield Asset Management towards Roadrunner and the deployment of other e-fuel projects globally. It also has a strategic deal with American Airlines for delivery of commercial volumes starting in 2026.

“Long-term, bankable commitments like these are what drive the ability to ramp up production of e-SAF,” commented Robert Schuetzle, Infinium’s CEO, on the IAG agreement.

IAG claims its airlines used an estimated 12% of global SAF supplies last year. The new deal will enable the company to access Infinium’s e-SAF for any of its five airlines, which collectively operate 582 aircraft to more than 250 destinations in 91 countries.

“So far, we’re on track to deliver our 10% 2030 SAF goal,” said Jonathon Counsell, IAG’s Group Sustainability Officer, “and agreements with innovators like Infinium are key to reaching this target.”    

Aviation’s focus on e-SAF has intensified as global demand for SAF increases dramatically and as the EU prepares to activate a 2% fuel blending mandate for flights from its airports from 1 January. EU mandates will progressively escalate, climbing to 70% by 2050. Other governments, including the UK, are following, initially with mandates varying from 1% to 10% by 2030. Both the UK and EU SAF mandates will add a power-to-liquid requirement from 2028 and 2030 respectively.

Of the Infinium investment secured from Brookfield Asset Management, more than $200 million is earmarked for developments including Project Roadrunner and up to $850 million more for deployment of other Infinium e-fuel projects globally, all subject to pre-agreed metrics.

Breakthrough Energy Catalyst has also committed $75 million in project level equity to Project Roadrunner, its first announced equity investment. Breakthrough pulls together corporate and philanthropic organisations to expedite the use of new technologies by supporting clean technology innovation in commercial-scale projects.

American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier and a partner of multiple IAG airlines in the oneworld marketing alliance, has also entered a strategic partnership with Infinium to secure commercial volumes of e-SAF produced by Project Roadrunner.

Announcing their new deal, IAG and Infinium highlighted the abundance of CO2 either captured at the source of industrial production, extracted from biogenic waste or sucked directly from the atmosphere by giant fans.

“This new class of fuel is not encumbered by feedstock limitations, has a higher degree of emissions reduction versus conventional jet fuel, and has a relatively low land and water use footprint,” said the companies.

IAG’s Counsell urged regulators to focus on measures to encourage decarbonisation of air transport, rather than increase costs for the sector.

“Aviation as an industry is working hard to decarbonise and policy should focus on solutions such as SAF, rather than only increasing costs which risk affecting the competitiveness of the European aviation industry,” he said.  

“What the industry needs is additional policy support to attract funds to construct SAF plants and reduce aviation’s reliance on fossil fuels.”

The IAG-Infinium deal follows the formation of Project SkyPower by a high-profile coalition of European companies including airlines, airports, energy companies and financiers to advocate for development of an e-SAF industry in Europe.  

A report produced by the group in May argued that e-SAF is the most effective, and eventually the most affordable, pathway to low-carbon flight and urged governments to develop policies that reduced investment risk in infrastructure development and fuel production before SAF mandates are activated.

It also estimated that capital investment of €15 billion to €25 billion ($16-27bn) would be needed by 2030, and a further €3 billion to €5 billion annually to achieve the scale needed to meet ever-increasing SAF blending mandates.

“It typically takes five years for an e-SAF project between reaching final investment decision and being operational,” said the report. “Therefore, final investment decisions for e-SAF projects are needed by 2025 to start production by 2030.”

Photo: Infinium’s Project Roadrunner facility in West Texas

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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A new group, the Asia Sustainable Aviation Fuel Association (ASAFA), has been launched in Singapore to help accelerate pan-Asia production and use of low carbon aero fuels. Although the Asia-Pacific region is the largest consolidated market for air travel, accounting for almost 32% of global air passenger journeys, it lags both Europe and the US in SAF momentum. ASAFA brings together a range of participants in the SAF sector, from feedstock producers to policymakers, to collectively address core challenges, including standardising regulatory policies across the region, enhancing market frameworks, and raising awareness of the fuels through initiatives ranging from monthly workshops and webinars to industry white papers. Its aim is to uniformly progress SAF development and deployment in key sub-regions including Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and the world’s second and third largest aviation markets, China and India.

ASAFA has been co-founded by four industry specialists, former Airbus executive Fabrice Espinosa, now the new group’s CEO, chemical engineer and sustainable transport consultant Gabriel Ho as Chief Sustainability Officer, fuels and additives specialist Dr Dietmar Posselt as Chief Technology Officer, and Hui Ling Teo, a corporate lawyer specialising in aviation finance, technology and sustainability as the group’s Director of Governance.

Founding member organisations include Korean Air; major SAF user DHL Group; SAF distributor and emergent producer SkyNRG; carbon capture and storage company 1PointFive; environmental certification group Bureau Veritas; used cooking oil collector and distributor PT Green Energi Utama; low carbon-based feed and fuel producer Marquis Energy Global; energy pricing and data supplier Quantum Commodity Intelligence; and the EU-ASEAN Business Council.

Additionally, ASAFA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), which will connect members of the new group with the agency’s research institutes to help develop and implement advanced SAF technologies.

“We are placing Asia at the heart of our efforts by driving policies that resolve market inefficiencies, attract investments and establish SAF as a viable decarbonisation option for the aviation industry, making Asia a leader in SAF for net zero aviation,” explained Espinosa, a former GM for Airbus in Hong Kong, Head of Country for the company in Korea, and ex-Chairman of the Aerospace and Defence Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

The new group plans to develop “a collaborative ecosystem addressing the SAF value chain’s core challenges,” bringing together stakeholders ranging from feedstock providers to technology licensors, fuel aggregators, biofuel producers, airlines, investors and policy makers.

SAF development is gradually edging up across the Asia-Pacific region but initiatives are disparate and disjointed.

The world’s largest SAF production facility is operated in Singapore by global renewable energy group Neste, with capacity to produce 1 million tons per year from waste fats, oils and greases.

Some of its product has been used in Singapore, which will introduce a 1% SAF blending mandate from 2026, and plans to increase to 3-5% by 2030, while Japan and New Zealand are among other markets to import early supplies from there.

But much of Neste’s Singapore-made SAF is initially destined for Europe and North America, where demand for the fuel is already high and increasing.

Japan is progressing multiple SAF production projects ahead of a 10% blending mandate from 2030, while other projects are planned, being studied, or are underway in a range of markets across Asia and the Pacific including China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.

In Malaysia, the government recently announced contentious plans for the state-owned energy company Petronas to develop SAF from palm oil waste, despite bans on palm oil products in key markets including Europe.

And the Asia Development Bank has partnered with local stakeholders in the Pacific island-nation of Fiji for a feasibility study into SAF production from sugar cane.

“ASAFA’s engagement extends beyond policy reform to enhancing market frameworks that support SAF development,” said the new advocacy group.

“Through dynamic working groups comprising industry and government stakeholders, ASAFA will identify market gaps, align interests and implement measures to boost SAF accessibility and economic feasibility across Asia.

“In addition to its work on policy and market structure, ASAFA will seek to increase public understanding of SAF’s impact through tailored outreach efforts, creating a well-informed support base in the broader community.”

In many markets, a key benefit of SAF production will also be broader economic development and jobs through the conversion of local waste, particularly crop and forestry discards, providing not just recycling into alternative fuels but also a boost for the agricultural sector.

Top photo: Fabrice Espinosa, CEO of ASAFA

Bottom photo: ASAFA founders Gabriel Ho, Dietmar Posselt, Hui Ling Teo and Fabrice Espinosa at the official launch in Singapore

(Both photos: Edwin Koo for ASAFA)

Editor’s note: Hui Ling Teo of ASAFA will be speaking at the Aviation Carbon 2024 conference in London on November 25/26

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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Aviation technology group SITA has expanded a partnership with the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) to develop a planning tool which helps airlines reduce aircraft fuel consumption, emissions and operating costs, and more easily comply with complex and increasing environmental regulations. SITA Eco Mission was developed over a year through collaboration with AACO and three of its member airlines to streamline collection and assessment of information which carriers need to report as part of their environmental compliance obligations. Abdul Wahab Teffaha, AACO’s Secretary General, said the product had grown from a need for airlines to manage increasingly complex sustainability requirements, while also providing transparency to both regulators and customers.

“This is a step in the right direction in the journey of airlines’ quest to deliver on their environmental sustainability objectives,” he said.

Added SITA CEO David Lavorel: “As we face unprecedented environmental challenges, achieving sustainability in aviation demands more than compliance. It calls for a visionary approach.”   

The extended collaboration between Geneva-based SITA and AACO, which represents 37 airlines, began late last year when the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop a prototype of a data-driven system enabling carriers to simplify and automate reporting processes to meet their environmental compliance obligations.

The new system was also required to help cut the costs of meeting sustainability requirements, while enabling airlines to plan more efficient operations with lower emissions.

The resulting product, SITA Eco Mission, is a ground-based platform that collects data including flight schedules and fuel information from airlines’ internal systems and other information such as commodity prices and regulatory updates from a wide range of external sources.

The information is then consolidated, assessed and optimised by SITA, and delivered as data-backed insights to the relevant key departments of customer carriers to assist them in meeting their efficiency, financial and sustainability targets.

“The aviation industry remains at a critical crossroads as it works to reduce its carbon footprint and meet global sustainability targets, all while navigating increasing regulatory pressure,” said SITA.

“As the aviation industry adapts to increasingly complex regulations such as the European Union’s ReFuelEU Aviation mandate and ICAO’s CORSIA, airlines must balance emissions reduction with cost management.

“The continued partnership between SITA and AACO is focused on delivering the data-driven solution needed to simplify and automate compliance and reporting, streamline data collection and analysis, reduce the costs associated with becoming more environmentally friendly and help airlines plan their future operations so that they can meet their cost and emission targets.

“More so, the solution will support airlines in moving beyond a tactical, reactive approach, helping with smarter strategic environmental management across three key airline functions – Compliance; Strategy and Finance; and Flight Operations.”

During the past year, SITA collaborated with three AACO member airlines, which it did not identify, working with members of these functions to jointly chart what was required to navigate complicated regulations governing sustainable operations.

SITA then took the airlines’ feedback and worked with a technology user experience team to develop proof of concept for the Eco Mission product, which was taken back to the airlines for feedback and further refinement over several months.

The new planning tool has now been formally launched, and SITA expects global deployment from next year, when the EU will require all jet fuel provided at its airports to include at least a 2% blend of sustainable aviation fuel.

AACO’s Teffaha said the work performed by SITA and his member airlines had delivered a solution “invaluable not only to AACO airlines but also to the airlines of the world. This is a step in the right direction in the journey of airlines’ quest to deliver on their environmental sustainability objectives.”

Added Lavorel: “Together with AACO, we are advancing a solution that tackles these challenges directly, paving the way for a fresh, practical approach to environmental responsibility that moves the industry closer to its goals.”

Meanwhile, key AACO member Qatar Airways has strengthened its sustainability partnership with Brisbane-based Virgin Australia, a commercial ally of which it has announced plans to acquire a 25% stake, subject to regulatory approval.

The airlines have signed a MoU to expand their partnership, enabling them to collaborate on advancing sustainable aviation fuel and low carbon aviation fuel in Australia through measures including exploring certification, production and commercial use of the products.

“This MoU not only further strengthens the strategic partnership between Qatar Airways Group and Virgin Australia, but also cements the shared commitment towards achieving our common objectives in the area of sustainability,” said Qatar’s SVP Aeropolitical and Corporate Affairs, Fathi Atti.

Editor’s note: AACO Secretary General Abdul Wahab Teffaha and Igor Dimnik, VP Product, SITA will be speaking at Aviation Carbon 2024 in London on November 25/26.

Photo: Qatar Airways has expanded its sustainability partnership with Virgin Australia

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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Aircraft lessor Jackson Square Aviation and specialist financial services company Future Energy Global (FEG) have partnered to help generate investments needed to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel. Like leasing companies placing large orders for new aircraft, FEG was formed in January to aggregate the SAF requirements of multiple customers, then use the combined amounts to book large volumes of the fuels at favourable prices. This boosts the order books and confidence of evolving SAF makers, helping them to attract funding for infrastructure and production, while also providing customers, particularly smaller airlines and corporate buyers, with access to more affordable supplies of alternative fuels that they might not be able to achieve independently. Through the new partnership, Jackson Square’s airline customers will have access not only to SAF pre-purchased by FEG, but also to its network of corporate SAF buyers and suppliers, helping drive up demand for and production of the fuel. 

Leasing companies are increasingly focusing on the need to help deliver more sustainable air transport, recognising, like airlines, that if the industry fails to reach emission reduction targets it could face tighter government regulations and even mandated reductions in flying, potentially impacting fleet suppliers.

“We’re very proud to partner with Jackson Square Aviation to accelerate SAF rollout and to build a sustainable aviation ecosystem which brings together lessors, airlines, SAF producers and corporate clients,” said Future Energy Global CEO and co-founder Natasha Mann, a former executive of the leasing company GECAS, which has since been acquired by AerCap, the world’s largest lessor of commercial aircraft.

For the airline sector to achieve its carbon emission reduction targets, says FEG, SAF production needs to increase 1,000-fold from 500 million litres today to 500 billion litres by 2050, requiring more than $1 trillion investment in infrastructure.

“FEG gives suppliers the financial stability needed to expand, while buyers gain access to a steady supply of SAF and SAF credits at predictable costs,” explained the company, which is backed by US-based Aviation Partners, a leading supplier of aircraft winglets to reduce aerodynamic drag, fuel burn and emissions.

Added Mann: “We need radical collaboration between stakeholders to achieve the industry’s common goal of net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. Aircraft lessors are central to this as they own about half of the world’s commercial aircraft fleet, and Jackson Square Aviation is leading the way.”

Jackson Square Aviation (JSA), owned by Japan’s Mitsubishi HC Capital, is a mid-size lessor of Airbus and Boeing aircraft, with 277 jets either owned or committed for purchase, and fleet deployed with 60 airlines based in 30 countries.

Its customers range from big-name, long-haul carriers including Air France and Iberia to full-service and low-cost medium-haul operators including US-based JetBlue, Canada’s WestJet, Türkiye’s Pegasus and the world’s largest operator of A320 family jets, the Indian LCC IndiGo. The lessor’s latest announced deal was two A320s to emerging Estonian-registered leisure carrier Marabu Airlines.

“We recognise the climate risk of the assets we own, we pride ourselves on owning one of the most efficient fleets in the industry and we are focused on continuing to invest in the most fuel-efficient new technology assets,” said the company.

Almost 80% of Jackson Square’s aircraft are narrowbody Airbus A220, A320 and Boeing 737-family twinjets, with the balance a mix of widebody Airbus A330s and A350s and Boeing 777 and 787 models.

The average age of the lessor’s total fleet is 5.3 years, and 77% of its aircraft are new generation marques, with 37% of its total portfolio placed with EMEA-based airlines, 34% with carriers in the Americas and 29% in the Asia-Pacific region.

“As a key player in the commercial aviation value chain, Jackson Square takes its sustainability responsibilities very seriously,” said Ryan Opeka, JSA’s COO.

“We recognise the importance of investing in a more sustainable future for the global air transport industry. We are a strong proponent of the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels globally. In partnership with Future Energy Global, Jackson Square Aviation will apply our finance expertise to help our existing and future clients decarbonise their operations with SAF.”

In September, FEG was approved as an accredited SAF trader under two global assessment programmes, International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), both of which validate the integrity of SAF supply chains to ensure that the fuel’s development is entirely sustainable and that its claimed environmental benefits are authentic and traceable.

As part of its SAF ecosystem programme, FEG also helps to manage for its customers the nuanced complexities of SAF procurement and regulations in different markets.

Editor’s note: Natasha Mann of FEG will be speaking at Aviation Carbon 2024 later this month.

Image: Jackson Square Aviation

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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