Planes powered by landfill waste [less and less waste now goes to landfill; much goes to “energy from waste” plants aka incinerators] and cooking oil could become a regular feature of the airline industry in future but governments must help fund more research into alternative fuels, the head of British Airways’ parent company will say on Tuesday.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of the International Airlines Group, will urge governments to offer the same incentives to the airline industry as they do to road transport companies to develop more environmentally sustainable sources of fuel.
British Airways is working with a company called Solena which is building a facility in Essex to convert landfill waste into jet fuel.
Rival carrier, Finnair, will on Tuesday use fuel developed from recycled cooking oil to power a flight between Helsinki and New York, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Summit in the US.
Mr Walsh will tell leaders at the summit in New York that airlines are seeking to reduce carbon emissions but need more support from governments if there is to be widespread change across the industry. IAG argues that other transport industries are incentivised through fuel credit schemes.
Finnair will fly an Airbus A330 using a biofuel that has been partly made from cooking oils recycled from restaurants. The airline insists that biofuel is a “proven and exhaustively tested technology”. The Finnish national airline flew its first flight with biofuel in 2011.
British Airways announced earlier this year that it had agreed to buy 50,000 tonnes a year of jet fuel produced from landfill waste from a facility being developed in Coryton, in Essex. The biofuels plant is due to be completed in 2017.
Mr Walsh will also press for government support to set up a global carbon trading system for the aviation industry.
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One comment:
I doubt there’s enough used cooking oil in the Uk available to keep even a couple of 777’s flying, they take up to 200,000 litres to fill up their tanks! Multiply that by maybe 400 times for a years worth of flying…..
Displacement of carbon emissions – and the “sustainable fuel” myth
It needs to be remembered that for every fuel user that can get some genuinely low carbon fuel (such as that derived from used cooking oil), for their expanding fuel consumption, another who was unable to obtain this fuel has to use a conventional, high carbon fuel instead.
The net impact is no overall cut in carbon emissions – unless there is lower fuel use overall. The only result is that one industry [airlines in this case] can claim a PR bonus, while ignoring the emissions displaced elsewhere. The high carbon fuel is merely burned by someone else [some diesel vehicle user].
This is the same principle as ILUC (Indirect Land Use Change) that happens with claims about biofuels. If land that was used to grow food is instead used to grow a biofuel crop, that just means that other land now has to be found to grow the displaced food crop. Finding that land may require that forest etc is cleared. The growing of the biofuel did not itself directly cause cutting down of forest, but that is the indirect effect. ie. ILUC.
The negative impact is displaced elsewhere.
Biofuel flights made so far:
Click here for a table of all the commercial flights on sustainable aviation fuels since certification was granted.
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The website, EnviroAero or “Aviation Benefits” has a page on
Sustainable fuels
“The development of sustainable aviation alternative fuels could provide a very large part of the industry’s emissions-reduction strategy. Research has shown that, on a full carbon lifecycle basis, using the equivalent quantity of some alternative fuels could reduce CO2 emissions by around 80% compared to the jet fuel they replace.
Since the first biofuel flight in a commercial aircraft took place in 2008, there has been a huge amount of work by the industry and our partners. Certification through the global fuel standards agency ASTM allowed us to operate using biofuels and more than 1,500 commercial flights on alternative fuels have flown since 2011.
Click here for a table of all the commercial flights on sustainable aviation fuels since certification was granted.
The alternative fuels we are investigating are second-generation feedstocks that can be grown or produced without negatively impacting food supplies, water or land use. Importantly, they are also ‘drop-in’ fuels which share the same properties as the jet fuel we use today, so can simply be blended with the current fuel supply as they become available
Many of the technical hurdles facing aviation in its move towards sustainable aviation fuels have been overcome and much of this work has been achieved within the industry. Now, commercialisation and scaling up of the supply of alternative aviation fuels is the most important task. But airlines and the rest of the industry cannot do it alone – political support and financial investment will have to come from a number of stakeholders.
This section outlines six suggested steps that policymakers can consider in helping their air transport system grow with less carbon-intensive fuel, whilst in many cases also investing in green growth jobs and a new sustainable industry. These steps are presented in no particular order:
There are many examples of stakeholder-oriented processes, all of which are groups of regional and national stakeholders, who have convened to work through the sustainability, supply, investment and long-term planning issues and maximise the opportunities within their respective regions. Within coming years, many significant commercial, policy and sustainability outcomes will result from such comprehensive regional stakeholder processes. These processes serve to enable commercial parties, while also giving confidence to governments and civil society organisations that sustainable aviation fuels efforts are following a planned path.
The aviation industry has established a plan for reducing emissions. Sustainable aviation fuels are an important part of that plan and, as you will have seen in this publication, the industry and its partners have made significant progress. There is confidence that alternative fuels can be a very significant part of every airline’s future. From policymakers, the industry is looking for encouragement and the right set of legal, fiscal and policy responses to ensure this exciting new energy stream can bear fruit as quickly as possible.
Sustainability
The aviation industry has made it clear that it is only looking at second-generation biofuels and is determined not to repeat the mistakes made with first-generation sources, expecting any supply to be fully sustainable. The industry is working together through groups such as the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) to make sure that any fuels used by the industry are, in fact, sustainable.
Initiatives around the world
Businesses from across aviation’s value chain are coming together in projects around the world to help with the commercialisation of alternative aviation fuels. Below is a list of such initiatives and links to their websites:
- Nordic Initiative for Sustainable Aviation (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland)
- Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany (Germany)
- Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (United States)
- Aliança Brasileira para Biocombustíveis de Aviação (Brazil)
- Brazilian Biojetfuel Platform (Brazil)
- Australian Initiative for Sustainable Alternative Fuels (Australia)
- Midwest Aviation Sustainable Biofuels Initiative (United States)
- Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest (United States)
- Bioqueroseno (Spain)
- SEASAFI (South-east Asia, no official website)
- Biofuelnet (Canada) “
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