November 29, 2023
3 min learn
Virgin Atlantic flew the primary giant industrial jet to traverse the Atlantic with 100% sustainable aviation gasoline
A Virgin Atlantic Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner as seen on ultimate method to London Heathrow Airport.
CLIMATEWIRE | A Boeing 787 departed London Heathrow on Tuesday with historic cargo: 60 tons of waste fat and low-carbon kerosene to energy a Virgin Atlantic flight throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
Roughly seven and a half hours later, the plane touched down at John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport in New York, changing into the primary giant industrial airliner to traverse the Atlantic with 100% sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF), a household of biofuel applied sciences billed by the Biden administration and business because the chief near-term resolution to dramatically decarbonize the worldwide aviation sector.
Joey Cathcart, a senior affiliate on the environmental group RMI who was on board, mentioned “SAF is going to be a significant part of the long-term decarbonization for aviation, especially for long-haul routes.”
“From a passenger experience standpoint, the flight is as if you’re on any other flight, but your carbon impact is 70 percent reduced,” he mentioned in an interview after touchdown in New York.
Virgin Atlantic hailed the flight as a “culmination of a year of radical collaboration” that includes RMI, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and different organizations. Rolls-Royce provided the Trent 1000 engine, and the venture obtained funding from the UK’s Division for Transport.
The announcement got here every week after enterprise jet operator Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. flew what it known as the first transatlantic flight fueled by SAF. That plane mannequin can maintain 19 passengers, a fraction of the roughly 248 passengers that may match on a industrial 787.
Globally, SAF has been gradual to achieve traction due to increased prices and restricted provides. Final yr, U.S. manufacturing totaled 15.8 million gallons — lower than 0.1 % of whole gasoline consumed by U.S. airways and much in need of the Federal Aviation Administration’s earlier purpose to make use of 1 billion gallons of sustainable aviation gasoline yearly by 2018. The Biden administration is now aiming for the U.S. to supply 3 billion gallons of SAF yearly by 2030.
U.S. firms are eyeing an Inflation Discount Act program that might award a tax credit score of between $1.25 and $1.75 per gallon of SAF. Environmentalists and farmers have sparred over whether corn-based ethanol should qualify for the credit score, sparking a debate about whether or not the federal government will really be supporting “clean” gasoline.
Tax specialists say the ultimate guidelines for the credit score are possible by the tip of the yr. A Treasury Division spokesperson declined to touch upon timing.
Aviation accounts for about 2 percent of global emissions, in response to the Worldwide Vitality Company. The principle world airline affiliation, the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation, is concentrating on net-zero emissions within the sector by 2050. In the meantime, Worldwide Civil Aviation Group member states agreed final week to cut aviation sector carbon dioxide emissions five percent by 2030.
Whereas electrical automobile market shares develop steadily and the U.S. energy sector slashes emissions, the aviation sector is taken into account a way more troublesome decarbonization problem, together with the cement and metal industries. Lithium-ion and different batteries aren’t vitality dense sufficient and are too heavy to energy a jet. The hydrogen aviation sector is also in its infancy.
To chop aviation emissions, a number of firms have introduced SAF targets. U.S. biofuels producer Gevo is aiming to supply 1 billion gallons yearly of biofuel by 2030. Finland-based Neste is set to produce 500 million gallons of waste-based SAF annually by the beginning of 2024. One sort of waste SAF known as hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) was used on the Virgin transatlantic flight with a mix of “synthetic aromatic kerosene.” Neste, the world’s largest SAF producer, is supplying HEFA to energy jets on the Los Angeles and San Francisco worldwide airports.
Shai Weiss, CEO Virgin Atlantic, known as for extra SAF manufacturing.
“There’s simply not enough SAF and it’s clear that in order to reach production at scale, we need to see significantly more investment,” he mentioned in an announcement issued earlier than the flight had landed. “This will only happen when regulatory certainty and price support mechanisms, backed by Government, are in place.”
SAF has assist in each political events, though it has confronted political assaults. Earlier this yr, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) mentioned SAF “risks becoming the new Solyndra,” a reference to a photo voltaic panel firm that in 2011 defaulted on a $535 million mortgage from the Division of Vitality.
The Virgin flight was solely supplied to “observers” linked to the venture, fairly than commonplace industrial vacationers, in response to Cathcart.
Air BP, the aviation division of the U.Ok. oil large BP, provided the HEFA for the Virgin flight, whereas Virent, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum, provided the kerosene.
This story additionally seems in Energywire.
Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2023. E&E Information gives important information for vitality and atmosphere professionals.
