Why Airline Climate Change, Sustainable Jet Fuel Plan Lags Behind in Cars and Electric Vehicles

In 1928, a person crossed the Atlantic; In 2018, 4.3 billion passenger trips were recorded. Although some people managed to avoid it even before COVID (according to a Gallup poll, about half of Americans don’t fly at all), the rest of the U.S. population flies just enough to raise the average to about two flights per year.

It takes a lot of energy for people to blow themselves up and, since energy production comes at an environmental cost, air travel is a major carbon emitter, with a unique challenge compared to other modes of transport when it comes to climate change. Unlike innovations in cars, ships, and electric trains, where the extra mass required to go electric isn’t an insurmountable engineering issue, and extension cords aren’t 30,000 feet long, fuel remains largely the only way to fly, at least for longer flights. Eighty percent of emissions come from flights of approximately 1,000 miles or more, and for which there is no current viable alternative to fuel.

Each individual has a role to play in reducing emissions. The average American is responsible for about 15 metric tons of_CO2 per year, and more than a third of Americans say they are now likely to pay a little more in their airfare for carbon offsets. The rich and famous have an even larger carbon footprint. Taylor Swift’s much-criticized private jet produces around 8,000 metric tons of_CO2 a year. But Taylor has nothing to do with the airline industry, whose annual_CO2 emissions amount to one billion metric tons. If the combined airline industry were a country, in addition to having a killer peanut region, it would also have a higher_CO2 emission than Germany.

However, the industry emphasizes its small carbon footprint relative to other industries.

U.S. carriers, specifically, carry more than 2 million passengers and 68,000 tons of cargo per day while contributing “only” 2 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to industry trade group Airlines for America. The aviation industry has become more efficient in recent decades, with U.S. airlines improving their fuel efficiency (based on revenue per tonne-mile) by more than 135% between 1978 and 2021. But a focus on how low that 2% figure seems is part of a growing problem, according to climate analysts who study the aviation sector.

COVID slowed air travel, but is still expected to triple

Video conferencing may replace a portion of business travel, but as the aviation sector recovers, climate analysts say tripling global air travel in the coming decades, though forecast before COVID, remains a safe bet.

Passenger travel will increase more slowly, but analysts note that aviation is also used for cargo, which is not affected by business class. That’s a major concern about aviation’s carbon reduction plans. The industry should focus on keeping its share of emissions low, rather than seeing its current share as a reason to move more deliberately, according to climate analysts.

Compared to automobiles, where there is already a decade of progress in electric vehicles, and in the power generation sector, where there have already been significant investments in renewable energy sources that are cost-competitive versus traditional sources, aviation is still in the days of experimentation. of new fuel technology. Electric batteries, at best, have a role to play on shorter regional routes and urban travel, and airlines are making these investments.

Some critics say the aviation industry has been too slow to pursue climate solutions, but admit that aviation is a tough sector when it comes to net-zero targets because of its unique regulatory and safety requirements. The pandemic didn’t help aviation, and even critics say expecting the past few years to have seen a tidal wave of investment in startup technologies wouldn’t have been realistic given the more pressing financial challenges. Airlines have completed test flights with sustainable aviation fuels and agreements with sustainable aviation fuel producers have begun to pile up.

American Airlines finalized a deal over the summer with biofuels company Gevo to purchase 500 million gallons of sustainable airline (SAF) fuel over five years, part of American’s net zero carbon directive. It describes its climate goals as “aggressive,” including achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. American is the first airline globally to receive Science Based Targets validation for its interim GHG emissions reduction targets and the only U.S. airline will report the use of more than 1 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel in 2021.

Gevo’s process to produce low- or zero-carbon SAF begins on the farm where the raw material is grown. The company partners with farms that use regenerative farming techniques that sequester carbon in the soil. These farms also use precision application of chemicals and fertilizers to reduce the carbon footprint in that process.

The plants Gevo is designing will take those feedstocks (i.e. field corn) and convert them into ethanol. From ethanol, Gevo transforms it into a product that is chemically identical to standard aviation fuel. The difference between standard aviation fuel and Gevo’s SAF is the disposal of any fossil fuels used in that production process for heat, electricity, or any energy needed.

Instead, Gevo integrates wind, solar, hydrogen, biogas and other renewable energy sources to remove fossil fuels from the process. This will provide a replacement fuel for aviation needs that is net zero, or even net negative, in terms of carbon intensity if carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is also integrated, according to John Richardson, director of investor relations at Gevo.

SAFs are chemically indistinguishable from standard airline fuel, but their production process is significantly different (and greener) than traditional fuels, although unlike electric vehicles in the automotive sector, there is much debate about which SAF approaches will be the ultimate winners and what trade-offs they need. which will be done today to support current technologies under development.

Gevo’s approach to raw materials is a case in point.

Today, the feedstocks used in sustainable aviation fuels are not produced at a scale that comes close to global jet fuel, and that scale problem will remain for years as the aviation industry tests competing technological approaches. The use of raw materials from food production, specifically, may become a bigger problem from an optical perspective in the future.

Several climate analysts told CNBC they are too concerned about focusing on scaling sustainable feedstock-based jet fuels at a time of growing concern for global food security in a world facing major impacts of climate change on agriculture. Gevo emphasizes that it uses residual starches from “inedible field corn” as raw material, which are abundant in supply and of low nutritional value.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury conveyed the matter at a panel at Britain’s Farnborough International Airshow, a five-day exhibition where executives and key figures gather to discuss the future of air travel: “Probably in the long run, in many decades, we will find a highly optimized form of sustainable energy. but in transition, the quick way is to use SAF, and they’re already available,” he said.

Judging by its own industry standards, American remains a leader in carbon reduction efforts. American received an “A-” score on climate change from CDP in 2021, the highest score among North American airlines and one of only two airlines globally to earn that score.

“We recognize that climate change is urgent and imminent,” said Jill Blickstein, vice president of sustainability for American Airlines. “As the world’s largest airline, American is committed to developing the tools necessary to decarbonize our operations.”

In addition to Gevo, it has invested in Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, “all aimed at developing the technologies that will help achieve our ambitious sustainability goals,” Blickstein said.

Aircraft Decarbonization Gets Boost from Biden

There are multiple technological approaches to sustainable aviation fuels that can decarbonize aircraft without prolonging the use of and dependence on current fossil fuels and green hydrogen technology has just received a major boost from the Inflation Reduction Act.

More investor money is expected to flow into green hydrogen as a result of the IRA, and climate analysts describe tax credits as a big driver of sustainable aviation fuels because, aside from science, the biggest challenge in scaling up these operations and SAF production has been the economic incentive. Green hydrogen approaches aim to remove CO2 from the air and mix it with green hydrogen in a form of kerosene that can be cost-competitive with conventional jet fuel.

In February 2021, KLM flew for the first time a Boeing 737 passenger jet from Amsterdam to Madrid fueled with 500 litres of synthetic kerosene, from energy giant Shell, mixed with traditional jet fuel.

Recently announced deals with startups in space were already in the works with major airlines even before the IRA, including Twelve, which recently signed a deal with Alaska Airlines and Microsoft over its focus on creating sustainable fuels using carbon captured from the air, water and renewable energy. Alaska, which has used SAF blends since 2011 on specific routes, noted that there is still a long way to go: Currently, less than 1% of the total available fuel is SAF, and its cost is three to five times higher than conventional jet fuel.

Delta Air Lines recently signed the largest U.S. aviation deal for green hydrogen-produced fuels with Louisiana-based DG Fuels, which uses residual CO2 as feedstock, and in its announcement measured the scope of the challenge by stating that the existing global SAF supply could operate a fleet the size of Delta for a day.

At the moment, electric vehicles are way ahead of the innovation curve, with many more years of testing and government policies to support the transformative growth of the transport sector.

But not everyone sees SAFs as the solution, particularly given the growth trends in the industry. At the recent Farnborough International Airshow, climate activists and activists rejected the industry’s emphasis on SAFs, urging them to “be realistic” and deliver more meaningful climate solutions. Instead of SAF, slow growth and fewer trips and fewer flights are proposed as a way to address the problem, perhaps by reducing domestic flights and encouraging and improving rail travel.

Analysts warn that all the effort being devoted to aviation’s carbon-free future should not eliminate even more important replacements for air travel, such as high-speed rail. But for aviation, the target must be the same as in other sectors, with its emissions peaking as soon as possible. And the choice that seems clear today is that aviation stays on the path of fuels, unlike automobiles, where electricity is the future.

Whichever form of fuel production produces the least amount of emissions with the greatest profit and profitability will win, and that’s what no one in aviation knows for sure today. Climate analysts expect it to be at least five years to a decade before the most viable solutions emerge.

Source: Butterword