Asian Sky Quarterly 2021 Q3
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FLYING GREENER WITH SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL<br />
By Tiffany Tong<br />
With global temperatures on the rise, research into sustainable<br />
fuels has become a hot topic of discussion in the aviation<br />
industry. According to data provided by the Air Transport<br />
Action Group (ATAG), worldwide flights produced 915 million tonnes of<br />
CO2 in 2019. Furthermore, aviation is responsible for 12% of CO2 emissions<br />
coming from all transport sources – with 74% coming from road<br />
transportation. With the world recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic,<br />
and air travel slowly picking back up, it is even more important for the<br />
aviation industry to consider alternatives to using fossil fuels.<br />
Another unique property of SAF is that the chemical and physical<br />
characteristics are almost identical to conventional jet fuels, thus allowing<br />
the two to be safely blended together. These combined fuels<br />
are called “drop-in fuels” – fuels that can be automatically incorporated<br />
without needing existing aircraft, engines, or airport fuel systems<br />
to be modified. With SAF’s potential to reduce the carbon footprint of<br />
aviation fuel by up to 80%, it is hoped that its introduction will result in<br />
a step forward in the decarbonization of the aviation industry.<br />
SAF, short for sustainable aviation fuel,<br />
are fuels that are not derived from fossils.<br />
Also known as ‘next-generation biofuels’<br />
or ‘advanced biofuels’, they are produced<br />
from sustainable feedstocks. Feedstocks<br />
(otherwise raw materials from which fuels<br />
are produced) include used cooking oils,<br />
non-palm waste oils, and other municipal<br />
solid waste. Although similar to standard<br />
biofuels, SAFs have to ensure their feedstocks<br />
can be grown or produced without<br />
unintentional environmental consequences,<br />
such as deforestation.<br />
Hongkong Jet is one such operator considering the use of SAF. According<br />
to the company, it believes that SAFs are one of the main factors to<br />
make aviation greener.<br />
We are very pleased to have SAFs in the<br />
private jet industry and fully support its<br />
development and usage because of the<br />
environmental protection.<br />
says CEO Alex Jiao. “We would love to start using it once it has been<br />
approved by OEMs and civil aviation authorities.” Despite customers<br />
not specifically requesting for Hongkong Jet to use SAF, the operator<br />
still intends to reduce aviation’s ecological footprint as well as minimize<br />
the effects of global warming.<br />
42 | ASIAN SKY QUARTERLY — THIRD QUARTER <strong>2021</strong>
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