SAF: A Solution To Cut Aviation Emissions

(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)) São Paulo – The number of planes in the sky is expected to nearly double in the coming decades, passenger demand is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, but the net greenhouse gas emissions in Aviation will have to zero, thus going in the contraflow of the industry growth. The star of this change should be a very well-known player – fuels. Investments in the industry have been directed into the sustainable aviation fuel, known as SAF, which is made from various sources, and emits 80% less carbon dioxide compared to aviation kerosene. (Pictured above, a Boeing aircraft being filled with SAF.)

The reason for this rerouting in the growth of carbon dioxide emissions is to make the industry reach the goal that was set forth by the Paris Agreement in 2015, which aimed to limit global warming to 1.5C. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the industry was responsible for roughly 2% of total global CO2 emissions in 2022, a pandemic year, when flights were 80% of the conventional level.

Projections by airline trade group Iata indicate that by 2025, 381 million tonnes of carbon dioxide will no longer be emitted by the industry. Of these, 97% will come from emission compensations, and 2% from the use of SAF. These percentages will gradually change so that the share of net-zero emission sources and emission compensations will grow by 2050, when SAF is expected to account for 65% of the emission reductions in a year when the industry estimates that 8.1 billion dioxide emissions will no longer be emitted into the atmosphere.

According to Iata figures, SAF production is expected to reach 8.1 billion liters by 2025 and 449 billion liters by 2050. SAF sources are many – waste cooking oil, urban waste, agricultural waste, sugar-containing plants, and others.

But to get into aircraft fuel tanks, SAF has to meet an important requirement – it must have the same traits of aviation kerosene so that the aircraft engines don't have to be adapted and that their operation is not compromised.

SAF is already in existence and has been used in commercial flights but still at a very low scale compared to the challenge and the industry's need of decarbonization. Costs and final prices have been the main challenges to implement it. According to Latam Brasil Sustainability manager Lígia Sato, SAF has a“huge” potential to boost the decarbonization agenda. But she points out that the SAF output currently meets just 0.15% of the global demand, and its cost is five times the conventional jet fuel's.

Jorge Eduardo Leal Medeiros, a professor of Air Transport and Airports at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP) and pilot, says that approximately 40% of the costs for an airline are from fuels, which costs an average of BRL 3.50 a liter (USD 0.70). Tanks of competing single-aisle aircraft like Boeing 737 MAX 8 or Airbus A320neo can contain approximately 26,000 liters of fuel. The Boeing can accommodate 162 to 178 passengers in two classes, and Airbus 150 to 180, according to the technical specifications of the manufacturers.

The industry invests in research, and Iata encourages the pursuit of new aircraft models and energy sources like electric and hydrogen, but they aren't projected to fuel large aircraft within the next few years.

“There is no way you can substitute planes now. They have a great importance for the economic development, and there will be no hydrogen or electric technology for planes in the short term. There's interest in eVTOL, but it's still small,” says Medeiros. eVTOL stands for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, which have started being tested. One company investing in this segment is Brazil's Embraer .

Latam: SAF offers opportunities for Brazil and the industry, but clear policy is required. The company has already made flights fueled by it

One the world's leading aircraft manufacturers, Boeing has also invested in new technologies for the use of new materials, aerodynamics, or motor operation. Otávio Cavalett, Global Sustainability Policy and Partnerships Regional Lead for Latin America at Boeing , says that the industry's main challenges are“materializing these decarbonization initiatives that are already available,” like fleet renewal and the use of SAF.

More efficient planes

“Numbers show that the new planes delivered now can reduce emissions by around 20% to 30% compared to the older models that they are substituting. So, yes, fast-tracking the fleet renewal is a very important move to be pursued for decarbonizing the industry,” he says. However, Cavalett adds, decarbonization will only occur if all“stakeholders” unite towards this goal – the academy, governments, energy companies, and airlines, the latter still recovering from the effects of the pandemic that crippled the industry in 2020.

Latam uses both Airbus and Boeing aircraft in their fleet. The Airbus models like A319, A320 and A321 are used for domestic flights or short distances in South America. On the other hand, Boeing's larger models like 767, 777 and 787 are used for long-distance routes. Sato says that the company constantly invests in fleet renewal, and that the more efficient models consume up to 25% less fuel, and that in 2023 15 new places started operating in Brazil – seven A321neo and eight A320neo. (Neo being Greek for“new”, as well as an acronym for“new engine options”. The neo family was launched in 2014.)

“The fleet's newer aircraft are already prepared to be fueled by SAF. All it takes is the sustainable fuel to be both available and affordable in the air sector. Moreover, we worked with the drop-in model, so we don't have to make structural adjustments in our aircraft to fly using SAF,” said Sato.

The company has already used SAF in its flights.“In 2022, we announced our pledge to try to use 5% of SAF in our operations by 2030, with its production being mandatory in South America. In March 2023, we made our first international flight with SAF, connecting Spain and North America. Last July, we received an Airbus A320neo that used 30% of SAF in its delivery flight from Toulouse [France] to Fortaleza [Brazil], and in October an A321neo using 49% of this fuel from Hamburg [Germany] to Fortaleza. These are signs that we have given the market saying that there is demand and interest in obtaining high-quality SAF on a large scale and within the technical requirements,” she says.

CNI's Gomes: SAF offers social and economic development potential, but there are challenges

But the matter of costs, Sato says, is crucial for the industry's sustainability.“One of the main challenges for the aviation industry's sustainable growth is not to increase costs to the point that it prevents people from accessing air transport or limit the connectivity of a continent-sized country like Brazil,” she says. She argues in favor of establishing a regulatory framework to decarbonize the industry, legal certainty for investments, and“appropriate” incentives and tax treatment.

Brazil's potential

Jefferson Gomes, Technology and Innovation Director at industry group CNI , believes SAF is one of the paths for decarbonizing aviation, and that some places do have a huge potential in producing and exporting it.

“May the sertão in northeastern Brazil use sisal as a SAF input? Yeah, they may. Poverty there is huge, social vulnerability is huge, economic development is bad, and the resource abounds. The topography is good, solar incidence is high. You can make SAF, and you can make hydrogen . You can use the same reasoning for nitrogen fertilizer – when market is bad for SAF, you drift from that towards some other thing,” he says about the potential of this new frontier for sustainability.

However, Gomes says there are places that don't have available raw materials aplenty or even ready availability of the product.“I believe SAF is a fantastic solution, but it will always account for some share, because making common kerosene is very cheap,” he says.

Sato, for her part, mentions a study saying that Brazil is capable of manufacturing enough SAF to meet the domestic needs and be a major“player in the export market.”

Translated by Guilherme Miranda

Supplied/Boeing Supplied Supplied/Iano Andrade/CNI

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