Rio De Janeiro: The current energy shock should add even more urgency to the development of renewables, including SAF, and the sustainable aviation fuel production is projected to touch around 2.4 million tonnes this year, accounting for just 0.8 per cent of the global jet fuel use, according to the airlines’ grouping IATA.
Jet fuel prices have soared in recent times due to the West Asia crisis, and the operational costs of airlines have gone up.
To increase SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) production, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents around 370 airlines worldwide, has suggested expanding renewable energy supply, strengthening policy support, ensuring open access to fuel infrastructure and other measures.
Walsh added: “The current energy shock should add even more urgency to the development of renewables, including SAF. But we have yet to see either the energy shock, the need to develop energy independence and jobs, or the urgency to mitigate climate change materialize in the incentives needed to create a viable SAF market.”
Along with SAF (from biofuel sources), e-SAF (electro-SAF) should also play a growing role in air transport’s decarbonization. The conversion of renewable electricity using a power-to-liquid (PtL) process can produce e-SAF. E-SAF does not require biomass or waste oils, IATA says, but does require large amounts of renewable electricity, green hydrogen, water, and CO2.
The EU and the UK have mandated e-SAF production of around 0.6 million tonnes by 2030. However, global production capacity currently operating and under construction stands at around 0.02 million tonnes with only one single production site in operation. It would take approximately 20 commercial-scale refineries to achieve the mandated volume. Moreover, no new final investment decisions for e-SAF facilities have been made over the past year.
IATA says the EU and UK mandates will not be achieved.
“The 2030 e-SAF targets by the UK and the EU are beyond unrealistic – they are utterly detached from reality. It is a reckless energy market creation strategy to impose mandates before production is enabled,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President Sustainability and Chief Economist.
“A serious strategy would first scale renewable energy production to drive its price down and build the e-SAF production capacity on sound economics. Only at that point can mandates achieve the desired results,” Thomsen said.
