What is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)?
Contents
What you need to know about SAF
How is SAF made?
How much SAF are airlines using?
Will SAF lead to net-zero air travel?
Is SAF really a sustainable and climate-friendly solution?
Is SAF making air travel more expensive?
What you need to know about SAF
The world’s appetite for flying keeps on growing, fuelling concerns about how to shrink the carbon footprint of air travel – today the cause of about 2.5% of all energy-related emissions.
While that’s a relatively small share of global emissions, it looks set to increase in the decades to come as other sectors, such as road transport, cut their emissions by switching to electric – still a distant technological prospect for commercial aircraft. Increasing demand for air travel will also play a role.
Aviation’s Green Dream: Read our investigative series on Sustainable Aviation Fuel
For the airline industry and many governments across the world, the solution is so-called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which can cut emissions by between 50% and nearly 100%, depending on how it is made, without requiring aircraft modifications.
How is SAF made?
SAF can be made from a variety of raw materials, or feedstocks, using different techniques, but today virtually all of it is made using the Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) process. This refining technique involves stripping oxygen from the fat molecules of natural oils and fats and replacing it with hydrogen. HEFA fuel has various uses, including in aviation.
https://www.climatechangenews.com/explainer/what-is-sustainable-aviation-fuel-saf/
