FINDING and developing enough regulatory compliant fuel in the quantities needed is the biggest problem facing global aviation today, reports Bloomberg.
Progress has been limited. Efforts to produce new types of cleaner fuels require hundreds of millions of dollars. But investors have remained wary with would-be plants routinely suffering lengthy delays and struggling to become operational.
'We need to scale-up by 1,000-fold,' says Hemant Mistry, director of net zero transition for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has pledged that the aviation industry will erase its carbon emissions by 2050 by using cleaner jet fuel.
At its new US$200 million plant in rural Georgia, dubbed Freedom Pines Fuels, LanzaJet Inc plans to produce nine million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) per year.
But that's a tiny step forward as it would take 100 such plants to fulfill just one per cent of the demand mandated of the world's commercial air carriers, which need 90 billion gallons a year to stay compliant.
Most SAF is derived from animal fats and waste oils, which are scarce. Used cooking oil is already widely collected for road transportation with only modest room for growth. And there is already a robust market for animal fats as ingredients for pet food and detergent.
IAG SA, the parent company of British Airways, has pledged to up its SAF usage to 10 per cent by 2030. Last year, bought 17.6 million gallons, or 0.66 per cent of its total fuel.
United Airlines has led US carriers, but got less than 0.1 per cent of its fuel from clean sources last year.
'This industry needs an absolutely huge amount of fuel,' said Alethea Warrington, a senior campaigner at Possible, a UK-based climate charity that is sceptical of SAF and encourages less air travel. 'Wherever you try to get this from, it throws up huge systemic problems.'
Freedom Pines will initially deliver scant climate benefits because it will use corn ethanol from the US Midwest to 'work the kinks out,' said Jimmy Samartzis, chief executive officer of LanzaJet.
SeaNews Turkey
Progress has been limited. Efforts to produce new types of cleaner fuels require hundreds of millions of dollars. But investors have remained wary with would-be plants routinely suffering lengthy delays and struggling to become operational.
'We need to scale-up by 1,000-fold,' says Hemant Mistry, director of net zero transition for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has pledged that the aviation industry will erase its carbon emissions by 2050 by using cleaner jet fuel.
At its new US$200 million plant in rural Georgia, dubbed Freedom Pines Fuels, LanzaJet Inc plans to produce nine million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) per year.
But that's a tiny step forward as it would take 100 such plants to fulfill just one per cent of the demand mandated of the world's commercial air carriers, which need 90 billion gallons a year to stay compliant.
Most SAF is derived from animal fats and waste oils, which are scarce. Used cooking oil is already widely collected for road transportation with only modest room for growth. And there is already a robust market for animal fats as ingredients for pet food and detergent.
IAG SA, the parent company of British Airways, has pledged to up its SAF usage to 10 per cent by 2030. Last year, bought 17.6 million gallons, or 0.66 per cent of its total fuel.
United Airlines has led US carriers, but got less than 0.1 per cent of its fuel from clean sources last year.
'This industry needs an absolutely huge amount of fuel,' said Alethea Warrington, a senior campaigner at Possible, a UK-based climate charity that is sceptical of SAF and encourages less air travel. 'Wherever you try to get this from, it throws up huge systemic problems.'
Freedom Pines will initially deliver scant climate benefits because it will use corn ethanol from the US Midwest to 'work the kinks out,' said Jimmy Samartzis, chief executive officer of LanzaJet.
SeaNews Turkey
