In November 2022, global aviation decarbonization accelerated via ambitious goals, SAF plant growth, purchase deals, and rising regulatory backing.
- ICAO member states added to their long-term goal to be net-zero carbon by 2050 in addition to their existing goal of carbon offsetting their operations boosting support for SAF further.
- Qatar Airways became the first airlines in the Middle East and Africa to commit to net-zero by 2050 and Southwest Airlines added an interim target to cut CO2 emissions by 20% compared to 2019 by 2030.
- Out of fie SAF plants that were announced recently, three plants are based in the U.S. while one is a pilot plant based in Japan.
- Alcohol-to-jet is the leading technology with four out of five announced plants being based on the technologies developed by LanzaJet (to own and operate), Gevo (to be owned by Brasil BioFuels), Air Company (to own and operate), and Axens (to be owned by Idemitsu).
- Technology developers are aiming for a SAF that is 100% drop-in solution as opposed to a blended solution, for instance, the lignin-based SAF developed by NREL in collaboration with MIT and Washington State University.
- SAF is also being tested for use in applications such as helicopters and Belgian company, NHV, recently made their first test flight using SAF sources from TotalEnergies.
- To support their decarbonization goals, airlines including Qatar Airways, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific, and the Air France-KLM group signed multi-year SAF purchase agreements with producers such as Gevo, Shell, Aemetis, and DG Fuels and Neste, respectively.
- Regulatory and policy pressures continue to intensify globally as more countries are setting clear goals for decarbonization.
- While the U.S. has announced a grand challenge and allotted budget to promote SAF as a part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), India and Japan in Asia Pacific also announced goals to decarbonize aviation.
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