Sustainable Aviation Fuel Archives - Eco-Aviation Foundation International

IDEAS: Gulfstream Completes Transatlantic Flight Using 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Liz Tang — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:29:33 +0000

Gulfstream has announced that its has successfully completed the world’s first trans-Atlantic flight using 100% SAF. The aircraft, which departed the company’s headquarters in Savannah, Georgia on November 19, landed almost seven hours later at Farnborough Airport in England.

The SAF used on the flight was comprised of 100% Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (neat HEFA), and was produced by World Energy and delivered by World Fuel Services.

According to a release, it is hoped the data collected from this flight will ‘help Gulfstream and its key suppliers gauge aircraft compatibility with future low-aromatic renewable fuels, particularly under cold temperatures for extended flight durations.’

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Collective action needed now to decarbonise aviation sector, says UN agency

Liz Tang — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:02:00 +0000

Global framework for sustainable aviation fuels development required with no country left behind, ICAO chief says in Dubai.
The chief of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) called for urgently accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable lower-carbon clean fuels needed for the global aviation sector to reach its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The ICAO’s third Conference on Alternative Aviation Fuels (CAAF/3), taking place in Dubai this week, has a “massive task at hand” as officials deliberate on the global framework for the aviation industry’s cleaner energy transition, Salvatore Sciacchitano, president of the ICAO council, said during a keynote speech on Monday.
“We need to take collective action now and CAAF/3 can be instrumental to laying the building blocks in terms of policy and planning, regulatory framework adjustments, implementation support and financing,” he said.

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Rolls-Royce successfully completes testing of 100% SAF on engines

Liz Tang — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 19:49:21 +0000

In what is a key achievement for sustainable aviation, Rolls-Royce announced it had successfully completed testing of 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on all its in-production civil aero engine types to ensure compatibility.
Tufan Erginbilgic, CEO of Rolls-Royce, said: “Becoming the first jet engine manufacturer to publicly confirm all our in-production engines for long-haul aircraft and business jets are compatible with 100 per cent SAF, is an important milestone for both Rolls-Royce and the wider aviation industry.
“It’s also further evidence of our commitment to becoming a net zero company by 2050 and supporting our customers to do the same.”

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Reducing aviation carbon emissions through U.S. sustainable aviation fuels

Liz Tang — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 00:32:00 +0000

Dr Reyhaneh Shenassa, from U.S. Department of Energy, explains how U.S. sustainable aviation fuels will reduce aviation carbon emissions.
Renewable carbon resources are carbon-based resources that are frequently regenerated, either via photosynthesis (e.g., plant, algae biomass) or through regular generation of carbon-based waste (e.g., the non-recycled portion of municipal solid waste, biosolids, sludges, plastics, carbon dioxide, industrial waste gases). This contrasts with finite carbon resources, such as petroleum and coal, which take millennia to regenerate.

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Shell to boost US green aviation fuel output

Liz Tang — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 04:52:00 +0000

Shell PLC is looking to scale up sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in the United States, a country it sees as attractive for development of such low-emission forms of energy, Shell USA president Gretchen Watkins said on Tuesday.

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“Business aviation is on a mission to net zero” – Ed Bolen, President and CEO, NBAA

Liz Tang — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 05:08:43 +0000

The path to zero emission aviation was a major focus of the recent NBAA-BACE Convention, where aviation leaders and visionaries gathered to explore “Where the Future Takes Flight.” Highlights from the show included:

“Climbing. Fast.” A dozen leaders from across the industry gathered to launch a new initiative called “Climbing. Fast.,” affirming the entire sector’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said, “At NBAA-BACE we made clear: business aviation is on a mission to net zero – and we are Climbing. Fast.”

Ed Bolen, NBAA President and CEO. Photo by Mariano Rosales, Aviation International News

The “Climbing. Fast.” initiative will highlight the pioneering work to make the industry’s net-zero carbon emissions goal a reality, including through the development of eco-friendly aircraft that use ultra-efficient engines, including hybrid, electric and even hydrogen-powered propulsion; the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which can reduce net-carbon emissions by 80%; and, the use of smarter, faster, more efficient routing that requires less energy.

The unified industry campaign already counts 10 stakeholder organizations in its ranks, whose leaders stated their enthusiastic support for the new initiative.

Newsmakers Panel: Hybrid electric aircraft coming soon. Industry visionaries leading the development of hybrid and electric aircraft propulsion joined the FAA’s head of aviation safety for a panel on opening day. Topics included fuel systems, regulation and markets.

Notable quotes: Huge growth opportunity: “While urban air mobility is certainly one application for electric aircraft, there’s a much bigger market in regional air mobility or longer-range flights of up to a few hundred miles,” said Marc Ausman, chief product officer at Electra, a company developing a hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing aircraft.

Marc Ausman (L), chief product officer at Electra and Scott Burgess (R), President, Eco-Aviation Foundation.

Due to the lower operating costs associated with electric flight, “when you’re looking at starting new business opportunities, the economics pencil out a lot quicker, and so you can take that risk now,” he said. “There’s a huge growth opportunity here. We can open entire segments and expose people to aviation in a way that just wasn’t possible before.”

Electra Aero scale model.

Pilot shortage: Kriya Shortt, president and CEO of Textron e-Aviation, said battery electric powertrains are also ideal for pilot training. According to Shortt, eAviations’ Pipistrel Velis Electro electric trainer can reduce operating costs by about 75%. This lowers the cost barrier that many aspiring pilots face when entering the profession which could in turn alleviate the pilot shortage.

Two fuel sources? Jean Botti, CEO and CTO of France-based VoltAero, made a strong case for having two fuel sources. “It’s probably better to be able to use two fuels to start with – what you have today, plus electric, this is already a step. Second, in order to make sure you have safety, two sources of energy [batteries and electric generators] are always better than one and much better for noise reasons,” said Botti, whose company is currently developing the Cassio family of electric-hybrid powered aircraft.

Keeping pace with designs: Panelist David Boulter, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, acknowledged that keeping up with all the various AAM propulsion designs presents “real challenges for a regulator to take on all at once.” To meet these challenges, he said AAM certification has been reorganized. “We’re working across the agency to break down stovepipes.

“You’ll see a big push from us next year to really be out engaged with the applicants, so that we can learn more, and we can make sure that we understand it. and a lot of these technologies will go across products.”

“We are fully engaged in making sure that we don’t stand in the way of innovation because a lot of these innovations are lifesaving,” said Boulter. “They will make it safer.”

Daymond John, “Shark Tank” personality, tours the Wisk generation 6. Photo by NBAA

Wisk, a Boeing subsidiary, is undergoing certification testing of its sixth generation AAM vehicle. “That’s the technical side, but we’re also super-focused on airspace integration [and] community engagement,” said Dan Dalton, Wisk’s vice president of global partnerships.

“How do we ensure that the airspace is ready to receive some of these autonomous aircraft?” he asked during an education session at the 2023 NBAA business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE). “And how do you tie everything that’s happening at the national level to the individual end user who’s actually going to hop onto these [aircraft] and hop off with them on a daily basis?”

Volocopter GmbH has demonstrated its 2X eVTOL vehicle at many national and international events, including during NBAA-BACE. Oliver Reinhardt, chief risk and certification officer for the company, said it’s important that people witness AAM operations to dispel fears and assumptions about the technology.

“The public initially had crazy things in their minds, scenes from ‘The Fifth Element’ with flying cars everywhere around vertical highways, but we’re doing something completely different,” he said. “We asked people before we were flying, ‘What do you think about AAM?’ Generally, the percentage was positive, but a little bit careful. Then we did our flights and asked the same questions afterwards, and their responses were overwhelmingly positive.”

Volocopter. Photo by NBAA

That said, challenges remain. AAM operations must demonstrate the ability to safely interact with other aircraft. Infrastructure is another key focus area for the industry, including concerns about whether already-stressed regional power grids will be able to support large-scale AAM operations.

Dan Elwell, an advisory board member for Joby, pointed to legislation like SB 100 in California, which is intended to scale up renewable energy production to offset the gap. “I don’t view infrastructure as a big hurdle for us,” he added. “There are thousands of heliports around the U.S., and we’re also going to be able to use large parking lots. We should be able to get back to rooftop operations as long as we have a charging capability.”

Joby Aviation advisor Dan Elwell, former FAA Deputy Administrator/ FAA Acting Administrator/ chief Next Generation Air Transportation System officer.
Photo by NBAA

Photo by Jessica Reed, Avionics International

Many industry stakeholders aim to begin small-scale commercial AAM operations by 2025, and Volocopter hopes to fly even sooner, during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

To make that happen, FAA Air Traffic Organization COO Tim Arel noted that AAM must not only safely operate among other aircraft, but also such new entities as commercial space providers.

“Our approach is [to provide] equitable access to the airspace. As all that comes together, our concern is how everyone will play together,” he said. “So, getting to scale is going to be our biggest challenge in our airspace.”

Arel pointed to the agency’s “Innovate28” initiative as a practical roadmap toward that goal.

“There are a lot of incremental tests and coordination efforts that we’re going to do around the country, all aimed toward a fully integrated system of all players in the LA basin by [the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in] 2028,” he said.

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Virgin Atlantic granted permit for historic 100% sustainable aviation fuel flight

Liz Tang — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 03:05:58 +0000

Virgin Atlantic’s historic 100% sustainable aviation fuel flight has been granted a permit to fly by the Civil Aviation Authority. Virgin Atlantic plans to fly across the Atlantic from London Heathrow to New York JFK on 28 November 2023 to test and showcase the feasibility of flying on 100% SAF.

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NASA, Partners Explore Sustainable Fuel’s Effects on Aircraft Contrails

Liz Tang — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 23:26:00 +0000

Contrails, the lines of clouds from high-flying aircraft that crisscross the skies, are familiar sights, but they may have an unseen effect on the planet –

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Large-Scale International Experiment at Copenhagen Airport Shows Biofuel Improves Air Quality

Liz Tang — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 22:43:37 +0000

Bio-based aviation fuel reduces the number of ultrafine particles, improving air quality. That is one of the conclusions drawn from a large-scale international experiment at Copenhagen Airport.

Researchers measured an aircraft with 34 percent bio-based fuel, SAF, in the tank while it was taxiing between the runway and the gate at the airport. Ground measurements show a reduction in the emission of ultrafine particles by about 30 percent…

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A jet engine powered by switchgrass? UGA project is looking at the biofuel possibilities

Liz Tang — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 21:41:00 +0000

A jet engine powered by switchgrass? UGA project is looking at the biofuel possibilities

A UGA study geared toward sustainable fuel for the future of aviation is looking at ways to use common switchgrass as a source for biofuel.

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