Sustainable aviation fuel: Major airlines, green groups, Boeing team up for development

A group of major airlines and Boeing Company, the aircraft manufacturer, have joined hands to accelerate the development of new, sustainable aviation fuels.

The collective initiative, named the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group, is being supported by and getting advice from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The Boeing Company, a major aerospace and defence corporation with its international headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, is the world’s biggest aircraft maker by revenue, orders and deliveries as well as the world’s second largest aerospace and defence contractor.

The airlines included in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group are Air France, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Cargolux, Continental Airlines, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), and Virgin Atlantic. Collectively, these carriers account for over 15% of commercial use of jet fuel.

The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group has pledged to consider only renewable fuel sources that cause minimum of impact to the biosphere; fuels that require minimal land, water and energy to produce; and fuels that do not compete with food or fresh-water resources. The group has also vowed to guarantee that cultivation and harvest of fuel-producing plant stocks must provide socio-economic value to the local communities.

Liz Barratt-Brown, senior attorney of the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), was quoted as saying on the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group initiative about sustainable fuel: “If done right, sustainable biofuels could lower the airlines’ carbon footprint at a time when all industries need to be moving away from fuels with high levels of global warming pollution, especially high carbon tar sands and liquid coal.”

In a statement, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group claimed that “commercial aviation is the first global transportation sector to drive voluntarily verifiable sustainability practices into its fuel supply chain.”

The group’s charter aims at enabling the commercial use of renewable fuel sources that can reduce emission of greenhouse gases even while reducing the impact of the volatility of oil prices on the aviation sector as well as lessening the sector’s dependence on fossil fuels.

All members of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group subscribe to a “sustainability pledge” stipulating that “any sustainable bio-fuel must perform as well as, or better than, kerosene-based fuel, but with a smaller carbon lifecycle.”

Billy Glover, managing director of environmental strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said of the initiative: “This is a tremendous opportunity for leading airlines, supported by well-respected energy and environmental organisations, to help commercial aviation take control of its future fuel supply in terms of origin, sustainability and environmental impacts. The number one priority going forward is to complete thorough assessments of sustainable plant sources, harvesting and economic impacts, and processing technologies that can help achieve that goal.”

Jean-Philippe Denruyter, WWF’s global coordinator of bio-energy and member of the Steering Board of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, commented: “We welcome the aviation sector’s will to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions, and appreciate its efforts to ensure the sustainability of its biofuels sourcing. By teaming up with the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, the aviation sector can build on an existing solid multi-stakeholder process that will reinforce this initiative.”