flightglobal.com 28 January-3 February 2020 | Flight International | 35
BIOFUEL
❯❯bonise aviation,” says Turner, although he
acknowledges that this could add up to 20%
to the total airfare. “You may have to say
you’ve got to have 10-20% more expensive
aviation because that’s the only way.”
Such a significant shift to alternative fuels
is unlikely to materialise without help from
governments. Air BP, which supplies sustain-
able aviation fuel to commercial and business
aircraft operators, is keen to see regulators cre-
ate a more favourable environment to enable
the fledgling market to get off the ground.
“Governments need to create the right poli-
cies to accelerate the availability and uptake
of SAF,” says Air BP global sales and market-
ing director for general aviation Irene Lores.
“Additionally, increasing SAF production re-
quires long-term policy certainty to reduce
investment risks, as well as a focus on the re-
search, development and commercialisation
of improved production technologies and in-
novative sustainable feedstocks.”
NORWAY LEADS
Mandating the use of biofuels by airlines is
another way in which governments can in-
crease take-up, and this is already starting to
happen. From 1 January 2020, 0.5% of avia-
tion fuel sold in Norway must be biofuel,
under a new mandate from the Norwegian
government. Other Scandinavian countries
look set to follow Oslo’s lead.
The Norwegian government has set a target
for 30% of aviation fuel sold in the country to
be biofuel by 2030.
“The decision to introduce a requirement is
good for the climate, good for the environ-
ment and helps accommodate for Norwegian
production of advanced biofuels,” the Norwe-
gian government says.
There is also the potential for governments
to incentivise airlines to use sustainable fuels
through adjustments to eco-taxes by charging
those flying on conventional fuels more. Re-
ferring to the UK’s Air Passenger Duty, for in-
stance, Turner says: “The chancellor could
say we’ve got this tax at x amount but we’re
now going to make it x plus 50% [for non-bio-
fuel flights] and minus 50% [for flights operat-
ing on a biofuel blend].”
Companies can also play a direct role. In
December 2019, US charter and management
company Latitude 33 Aviation became the
first Bombardier customer to make a SAF-
fuelled delivery flight, of a Challenger 350
from the airframer’s Dorval, Montreal plant.
Bombardier says it is actively promoting SAF
as a “regular part of flying business aircraft”.
But with limited supplies of low-carbon
fuels and competition from other transport
modes, airlines are restricted in how much
they can buy. In its report, the ETC makes the
case for prioritising aviation over other sectors
for access to what is currently a very limited
supply of biofuel.
“Aviation is almost the only sector of the
economy where – absent a major break-
through in battery density and/or a sharp re-
duction in the carbon intensity and price of
power for hydrogen production – there ap-
pears to be no feasible alternative to a bio-
based route to achieve net-zero carbon emis-
sions. There is, therefore, a strong case for
treating aviation as the priority sector claim-
ant on a constrained supply of sustainable
bio energy,” says the report.According to Lizzie German, a senior con-
sultant at sustainable energy consultancy
E4Tech, low-carbon fuels could account for
between 22% and 45% of global jet fuel de-
mand in 2050. Hydro-processed esters and
fatty acids fuels, such as those derived from
used cooking oil, are the most commercially
developed of the five certificated pathways.
But while these fuels can help satisfy
short-term demand over the next five to 10
years, their production will be limited by
“the availability of sustainable feedstocks” in
the longer term, says German. “Yes, there are
enough feedstocks available, but the chal-
lenge we need to overcome is: is there
enough sustainable feedstock and how do
we ensure sustainability?”BIGGER PLANTS
In order to substantially scale up production
of sustainable aviation fuels, there is a “need
to get the supply chains in place and access
the finance to build large-scale plants”,
observes German.
The market appears to be slowly moving in
this direction. In the UK, Sustainable Aviation- a coalition of airlines, airports, manufactur-
ers and air navigation service providers – is
calling on the government to establish a dedi-
cated Office for Sustainable Aviation Fuels.
The group says it wants the office “to drive
public and private investment into the first
commercial-scale facilities, and look at what
government incentives are needed to encour-
age the development of a market”.
Sustainable Aviation member British Air-
ways announced in August 2019 that it had
submitted a planning application alongside
Bombardier delivered a Challenger 350
powered by SAF to US-based private jet
firm Latitude 33 Aviation last DecemberBombardier