Climate Change – CNA

SINGAPORE: In 2019, flights produced 915 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – or about 2 per cent of all such emissions derived from human sources, in line with the figures from the Air Transport Motion Group. 

Even because the aviation sector is concentrated on tackling the brief time period challenges posed by COVID-19, the present disaster supplies a possibility for the business to outline a extra environmentally sustainable future, says Finnish biofuel producer and oil refiner Neste. 

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) will play a significant position on this new regular for aviation, stated Jonathan Wooden, Neste’s Europe and Asia-Pacific vp for renewable aviation.

The time period refers to biofuels that may be derived from a wide range of sources, starting from used cooking oil to agricultural waste. 

“In its neat kind and over the lifecycle it reduces greenhouse fuel emissions by as much as 80 per cent in comparison with fossil jet fuels,” stated Mr Wooden. 

“The usage of the gasoline reduces native emissions and supplies extra local weather advantages via lowered particulate emissions,” he added. 

One of many benefits of sustainable aviation gasoline is that it may be used as a “drop-in gasoline”, he famous – which means it may be used with current plane engines and infrastructure with none additional modification. 

Neste is at the moment increasing its Singapore facility to have the ability to produce as much as a million tonnes of sustainable aviation gasoline a yr by 2023.

READ: Finland’s Neste expands Singapore refinery as it taps renewable growth 

Whereas the aviation business has dedicated to reaching carbon impartial development from this yr and a 50 per cent discount in internet CO2 by 2050, extra formidable targets are wanted, stated Mr Wooden. 

Different options, equivalent to electrical plane, are nonetheless within the early phases of improvement, he identified. 

“With respect to new plane know-how, hydrogen propulsion is estimated by OEMs (authentic gear producers) to not be accessible earlier than the 2030s, and electrical plane are anticipated solely to be possible for smaller plane on shorter routes,” he stated. 

Options that instantly reduce carbon emissions from flying are wanted earlier than then, and as such there’s a rising want for sustainable aviation fuels, he stated. 

READ: US EPA proposing first-ever airplane emissions standards

SCALING UP

Neste is scaling up manufacturing of HEFA (Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids) options, in addition to investing in new applied sciences and feedstocks for the manufacturing of sustainable aviation gasoline, he stated, noting its focus in areas equivalent to algae oils and municipal strong waste as sources. 

Mr Wooden notes that within the final yr, Neste’s sustainable aviation gasoline has been bought to seven airways throughout totally different areas, together with Lufthansa, American Airways and ANA. 

Neste additionally lately signed an agreement with Shell to increase the supply of sustainable aviation fuel. 

Different firms producing sustainable aviation gasoline embody Dutch agency SkyNRG and LanzaJet, an offshoot of biotech firm LanzaTech. 

About 100 million litres of sustainable aviation gasoline is produced yearly –  although that is simply 0.1 per cent of all of the jet gasoline utilized by the business in a typical yr. 

READ: Airlines were tackling their greatest environmental challenges, then they were grounded by COVID-19

One of many components probably discouraging better take up of the gasoline is value, with it costing two to 4 extra instances the value of fossil fuels. 

The Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation (IATA) has referred to as on governments to assist sustainable aviation gasoline via investments and incentives. 

Stimulus investments may push its manufacturing to make up 2 per cent of all jet gasoline used yearly, which may make sustainable aviation gasoline extra value aggressive towards standard jet gasoline, stated IATA. 

Nearer to residence, in 2011 Singapore Airways turned a member of the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Person Group – an business group which goals to advertise the event and commercialisation of sustainable various fuels for aviation – and undertook its first flight utilizing sustainable fuels in 2017.

And earlier this yr, former Senior Minister for Transport Lam Pin Min stated Singapore would examine the usage of sustainable aviation fuels right here. 

“The Authorities and the business gamers are learning totally different enterprise and technological fashions to allow economically viable and sustainable SAF provide chains in Singapore,” stated Dr Lam in March.

Nonetheless, some have questioned how sustainable such fuels actually are. 

In a latest evaluation piece for CAPA – Centre for Aviation’s journal Airline Chief, Chris Lyle, the chief govt of consultancy Air Transport Economics, stated there’s “no clear definition of what makes an aviation gasoline a sustainable one”.

“Research of life-cycle emissions recommend that jet fuels produced from sugar and starch feedstocks ship small emission advantages, whereas vegetable oil-based feedstocks can have even greater carbon intensities than standard jet gasoline,” he writes. 

Mr Lyle pointed to the potential of artificial fuels made via the power-to-liquid (PtL) course of, the place renewable electrical energy and CO2 might be transformed into liquid fuels, which may scale back carbon emissions to nearly zero relying on the facility supply. 

These might be manufactured on the level of supply and take up a lot much less land for manufacturing than any biofuels, he stated, although he notes the excessive value and huge quantities of renewable vitality wanted. 

Nonetheless, Mr Wooden famous that the 80 per cent discount in greenhouse fuel emissions generated by sustainable aviation fuels has been independently verified by organisations such because the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials. 

“Neste is dedicated to full transparency of those calculations and finish to finish traceability of all waste  and residue feedstocks.”