Biofuels & novel fuels News
Below are links to stories about aviation biofuels.
Airbus hoping to have a “green” hydrogen-fuelled test flight “in a few years”
There are huge technical problems for the aviation industry, in trying to fly commercial airliners on hydrogen. Some are that hydrogen is a tiny molecule, and needs very strong, heavy tanks to keep it in; it has to be compressed and kept cold, and needs large tanks. But now Airbus says it has signed a partnership agreement with CFM International, to try to produce a hydrogen demonstration programme, hoping to manage a test flights "in the new few years." The demonstration will use an A380 flying testbed. It is hoped that the technology can be used "to assist with zero-emission flights by 2035." Airbus first produced futuristic concept designs for a hydrogen- fuelled plane in 2020. At the time, Airbus hoped they could operate commercial hydrogen-powered flights by 2035. Of course, Airbus wants a lot of government investment (ie. taxpayer money) to increase the production of hydrogen and create hydrogen transport and refuelling systems. Hydrogen could only be a low-carbon jet fuel if it is produced entirely using low-carbon electricity. There are many other more important demands on renewably generated electricity. Under 1% of the hydrogen produced in 2019 was made using 100% renewably-powered processes.
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Virgin hoping to work with Agilyx to try to make jet fuel from plastic waste, by pyrolysis
Virgin Group has announced it is forming a strategic partnership with Agilyx (a chemical conversion technology company) "to research and develop lower carbon fuel facilities to help address plastic pollution and the global transition to net zero." They want to produce synthetic crude oil from plastic waste that will then be refined into a fuel, through pyrolysis. Waste plastic would be diverted from landfill or incineration. There are few ways to produce jet fuels that are genuinely low carbon, feasible and do not create other environmental problems. Their production, for example trying to make liquid fuels from domestic refuse, is expensive and technically difficult. Most attempts have not been commercially viable. Virgin Group intends to work with Agilyx, one of its venture capital investments, and its first waste-to-fuel location is planned to be in the US, with an aspiration to roll-out similar plants in other countries, including the UK. Agilyx said it sees plastic waste as a valuable above ground resource that is not widely tapped into.
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Shell and its plans to produce “sustainable” jet fuels, using plant oils and animal fats
Shell is an enthusiastic proponent of so-called "Sustainable Aviation Fuels" (SAF). They claim that "SAF can be made from renewable sources such as used cooking oil, municipal waste and woody biomass. It is ... has the potential to reduce lifecycle emissions by up to 80%, compared with conventional aviation fuel." But Biofuelwatch and others are seriously concerned about the use of plant oils, including palm oil, that Shell considers acceptable. Used cooking oil could be seen as a genuinely lower carbon fuel, but there are limited amounts of it. There have been frauds involving companies making money by claiming virgin oils are "used." Biofuelwatch says Shell has signed a contract to buy 2.5 billion litres of aviation biofuels over a 5 year period from a refinery sourcing soya and animal fats, currently under construction in Paraguay. Cattle ranching - the source of the animal fat - is the main cause of the destruction of the Chaco forest. Shell plans to produce biofuel in Singapore, where there is pressure from Malaysia and Indonesia to use palm oil, directly or indirectly linked to habitat loss and deforestation. With immense world demand for palm oil, for human food, this cannot be justified.
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Government £15 million funding for 8 companies, hoping to make low carbon jet fuels
The DfT has announced the spending of £15 million for 8 companies that hope to make the (dreamed of) low carbon jet fuels that the industry so desperately wants. None of the funding is, as far as can be ascertained, going into development of plant or animal lipids. Many of the contenders intend to use domestic, commercial or woody waste, to convert this using gasification and the (energy intensive) Fischer-Tropsch process, into fuel. One wants to use sewage. Another wants to use industrial flue gases. Another wants to use direct air capture CO2, combined with hydrogen from electrolysis. There are grandiose claims about how much fuel will be made, how low its lifetime carbon emissions will be. In reality, it is unlikely that using forestry waste (not tree trunks) will produce much. Domestic waste is a very variable material, that has proved difficult to reliably turn into fuel in any quantity (and it needs people to throw away enough food, plastic, paper and card). Many require large amounts of electricity that is genuinely produced from renewables, competing with other uses. And producing fuel is generally a less efficient use of electricity than using it directly for heating or movement. So a lot of pie in the sky. Watch how these develop in the next few years ...
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Ammonia suggested as a possible future “low carbon” jet fuel – but problematic
A British company is hoping to use ammonia, in order to create "low carbon" flight in future decades. The hope is to produce ammonia (NH3) using the very energy intensive Haber Bosch process, which is how fertiliser is produced. Unless it used genuinely low carbon electricity for the process, a lot of carbon would be produced. The aspiration is that liquid ammonia could be stored in tanks on aircraft, and then - using the heat from the engines - "cracked" to produce hydrogen, which would fuel the plane. However NOx gases is produced in the process, and N2O is a highly potent greenhouse gas. Engines would need to have a second process, to turn the NOx into just water and nitrogen gas. The company wanting to do this hopes existing planes could be modified, though this would mean installing the cracker/heat exchanger unit next to each engine pod on an aircraft wing, and changes to fuel tanks. It is likely that an airliner with these modifications would only be able to fly short trips, of under 2,000km. Ammonia fuel would cost a great deal more than fossil kerosene - and it is a toxic and corrosive substance, that can damage many metals.
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HACAN calls for end to aviation greenwash and false “solutions”
Ahead of Transport Day (10th November) at COP26, community group HACAN were joined by a cross-party group of MPs and Peers outside Parliament to call for an end of greenwash from the aviation industry. Hacan said that instead of shifting responsibility to the international mechanism CORSIA, that heavily relies on greenwashed false 'solutions' such as offsets and so-called alternative fuels, Governments must take responsibility for aviation emissions in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In a climate emergency the only thing we can do right now to cut emissions from flying is to fly less. Even with some of the techno-fixes the aviation sector hopes for, by 2050 it is likely to be adding about 12% of the 205 Giga-tonnes remaining global CO2 budget. The sector must not be allowed to continue growing, based on greenwashing claims about low-carbon fuels in future, which are highly unlikely to materialise on any large scale. Parliamentarians attending were Rupa Huq, Baroness Jones, Baroness Kramer, John McDonnell, Sarah Olney, David Simmonds, Andy Slaughter and Munira Wilson.
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COP26: airport campaigners to protest at 10 UK airports, against aviation expansion and greenwash
To remind everyone, during the COP26 talks in Glasgow, that aviation is a huge climate problem, aviation campaigners are planning to protest at Bristol, Doncaster-Sheffield, Gatwick, Glasgow, Leeds-Bradford, London-City, Luton, Liverpool, Manchester and Southampton airports from 11am on Saturday 6th. The action has been organised by Stay Grounded (a global network of more than 160 member organisations promoting alternatives to aviation to address climate change) – as part of the COP26 Coalition Global Action Days. Stay Grounded and the many UK protests, are calling for the halt of airport expansion. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), the UK government's advisors, have recommended that there should be no further airport expansion, unless some airport capacity closes - but government has ignored this. Stay Grounded is also asking for an end to the “greenwashing” of aviation, and false hopes being placed in uncertain techno-fixes such as "sustainable" aviation fuel (SAF). The CCC has warned that SAF and other small technology changes will not be able to reduce aviation CO2 enough.
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Vague hopes by Manchester airport for future supplies of low carbon fuels from Fulcrum NorthPoint
There is an enthusiastic story about Manchester airport hoping to be getting "up to 10% " of the fuel used by aircraft at the airport replaced with SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) within 5 years "of the Fulcrum NorthPoint facility becoming operational." Manchester Airport had about 196,000 flights in 2019 (and in 2017). Its carbon emissions were estimated to be about 3.6 Million tonnes of CO2 in 2017. As a quick, "back of the envelope" calculation, that would mean - if the number of flights returns to the level pre-pandemic in a few years - the airport would need over 1,100 tonnes of the SAF per year. But the company to supply the fuel has not yet built its facility. It is part of Essar Oil UK, which has owned the vast industrial site in Stanlow, Cheshire, for a decade. But Essar is grappling with a funding shortfall potentially running to hundreds of millions of pounds. Not a great start to embark on this novel fuel project, but hoping for the extensive funding the UK government plans to give companies that try to make "low carbon" jet fuel. The SAF is intended to have a "70% lower carbon footprint" than conventional fuel, and be made from non-recyclable waste, which would typically go into landfill." It is actually really hard to make on a large scale.
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Airline industry needs to at least aim for net-zero by 2050 – rather than its current even weaker targets
In 2019 the ICAO confirmed its two global aspirational goals for the international aviation sector of 2% annual fuel efficiency improvement through to 2050, and "carbon neutral growth" from 2020 onwards. The IATA has its own target of aiming for "an average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5% per year from 2009 to 2020; a cap on net aviation CO2 emissions from 2020 (carbon-neutral growth); and a reduction in net aviation CO2 emissions of 50% by 2050, relative to 2005 levels." Now there is greater pressure on the aviation sector do actually do something to reduce its carbon emissions. In 2020, the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) produced its Waypoint 2050 analysis, hoping aviation “should be in a position to meet net-zero emissions at a global level by 2060 or 2065”. But now ATAG's director said it would soon publish an updated version of the Waypoint 2050 report to be more ambitious. The number of airlines that have made a commitment to aim for net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 is now 61. There is huge dependence on "sustainable aviation fuels" (which only exist in tiny amounts now, and will be expensive) providing a route to net-zero. The amounts needed by aviation in coming decades might be x8,000 as much as exist now, with production facilities costing billions of $.
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DfT consultation on mandate for very high SAF use by UK aviation in coming years
The government put out it "Jet Zero" consultation on 16th July (runs to 8th September) including aspirations for the industry to use a great deal of "sustainable aviation fuels" (SAF) in the attempt to keep everyone flying, but with lower carbon emissions. Now it has produced its consultation on mandating (instructing, ordering) the use of SAF in future for the sector (runs to 19th September). While the Climate Change Committee, in their advice to government in December 2020, said the most realistic estimate for SAF would be 5-10% by 2050, or at the most optimistic 25%, and with “just over two-thirds of this coming from biofuels and the remainder from carbon-neutral synthetic jet fuel …” Now the SAF mandate consultation is considering "a number of potential SAF uptake scenarios, up to 10% SAF by 2030 and up to 75% SAF by 2050." They are considering the fossil fuel baseline lifecycle GHG emissions intensity, by which to compare SAF for CO2 savings, as 89 gCO2e/MJ. An eligible new fuel would need to have CO2 savings of at least 60% compared to 89 gCO2e/MJ. They are considering the use of nuclear generated electricity as a way to make eligible SAF. And "feedstocks, including residues, should not be obtained from land with high biodiversity value or land with high carbon stocks in or after January 2008."