The Virgin Atlantic London-New York flight using 100% SAF to power the Boeing 787’s Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines was declared a ‘milestone moment’ by the airline, ‘marking the culmination of a year of radical collaboration to demonstrate the capability of SAF as a safe drop-in replacement for fossil derived jet fuel, compatible with today’s engines, airframes and fuel infrastructure.’

The airline says SAF ‘has a significant role to play in the decarbonisation of long-haul aviation, and pathway to net zero 2050’, claiming the fuel, made from waste products, delivers CO₂ lifecycle emissions savings of up to 70% whilst performing like the traditional jet fuel it replaces.

‘While other technologies such as electric and hydrogen remain decades away, SAF can be used now. Today, SAF represents less than 0.1% of global jet fuel volumes and fuel standards allow for just a 50% SAF blend in commercial jet engines. Flight100 will prove that the challenge of scaling up production is one of policy and investment, and industry and government must move quickly to create a thriving UK SAF industry,’ it continues.

As well as proving the capabilities of SAF, the Flight100 initiative aims to assess how SAF affects a flight’s non-carbon emissions with the support of consortium partners ICF, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Imperial College London and University of Sheffield. The research will improve scientific understanding of the effects of SAF on contrails and particulates and help to implement contrail forecasts in the flight planning process.

Earlier this month, Emirates airline recorded an aviation first with one of its Airbus A380 flights taking off from Dubai International Airport using 100% SAF supplied by Neste in one of its four engines, the other three powered with conventional fossil jet fuel.

‘Emirates is the first passenger airline in the world to operate an A380 with 100% drop-in SAF powering one of four Engine Alliance GP7200 engines,’ said Adel Al Redha, Chief Operating Officer, Emirates Airline, after the flight. ‘This marks another significant step in validating the use of SAF… The growing global demand for lower-emission jet fuel alternatives is there, and the work of producers and suppliers to commercialise SAF and make it available will be critical in the coming years.’

Neste claims its MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel^TM reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% when used in neat form, ie unblended, over the fuel’s life cycle compared to using conventional jet fuel (calculated with established life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies, such as CORSIA’s). It is made from sustainably sourced, 100% renewable waste and residue raw materials, such as used cooking oil and animal fat waste. 
 

Creating jet fuel from thin air

Meanwhile, in other SAF news, OXCCU, a climate tech spin-out company from the University of Oxford, has been awarded a £2.8mn grant through the UK government’s Advanced Fuels Fund. It secured the funding along with the University of Sheffield Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) and specialist fuel supplier Coryton.  

Claimed to be a world first, the demonstration project presents a novel approach to SAF production, directly converting CO₂ and hydrogen to hydrocarbons – ‘essentially creating jet fuel from thin air’, according to the project partners, who go on to explain that the OXCCU technology means that what was ‘traditionally a multi-step process has been simplified to just a single step’.  

Located at the TERC, the project’s reactor is fed with biogenic CO₂ captured from biomass combustion and hydrogen produced on site from electrolysis using green electricity. The fuel is then blended by Coryton to produce a fuel of Jet A-1 specification.

As part of its aim to cement the UK’s status as a world leader in SAF, the UK government recently announced new measures to support the industry, with a revenue certainty scheme to boost uptake and help create jobs. It has committed to having at least five commercial SAF plants under construction in the UK by 2025.

‘Aviation still needs hydrocarbons, but to achieve net zero they need to be created without the use of fossil fuels. Traditional biofuels have well-known issues with scale due to limited feedstocks. In contrast, e-fuels or synthetic fuels based on CO₂ have enormous potential to scale with fewer feedstock constraints but face challenges due to cost,’ explains OXCCU.  

The company says its patented technology ‘consolidates the traditional e-hydrocarbons production process from two-steps, reverse water gas shift (RWGS) then Fischer-Tropsch, to a one-step direct hydrogenation process…. [offering] a radically cost-effective solution and opening up intriguing opportunities for the future of commercial aviation’.

Modelling completed by independent researchers from Imperial College London, through Imperial Consultants, suggests that OXCCU’s one-step process, combining captured CO₂ and renewably-sourced green hydrogen through a novel iron-based catalyst, significantly reduces SAF cost due to higher selectivity yield in the jet fuel range and a 50% lower capital cost.