Irrespective of our personal and political views, I think we can probably agree that summer 2020 was one of those “may you live in interesting times” periods. This included significant hurricane formation in the Atlantic basin, hurricane strikes to the U.S. mainland, the hurricane of COVID-19 destruction of life, liberties, and businesses which we take for granted, and the hurricane cacophony of the political season reaching Category 4, ... not to mention wildfires, social unrest, demonstrations, and contempt for the rule of law on which civil society depends. Regardless of the angst, life continues, and we all do our best to cope and thrive.
So, the autumnal equinox came and went without much fanfare this year, and September passed into history ... and I’m happy to look forward. In a similar vein, our CAAFI efforts on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) development and commercialization continue, irrespective of the cacophony. There were several unique events that occurred this past month that reinforced the need for, value of, and results from the industry’s work on SAF, and point to promising additional collaboration opportunities to accelerate SAF commercialization. I’m happy to share some of those details with you.
The Bioeconomy Initiative Forum (https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/events/bioeconomy-initiative-forum) held virtually on September 14-15. Discussion topics were broad but targeted, and reinforced our Federal Partners interests in all things Bioeconomy, including SAF. Several specific affirmations of focus were made, with three specifically targeting SAF:
1) AAF IWG: Our colleagues at DOE/USDA/DOT formally announced the establishment of a new interagency work group under the auspices of the Biomass Research and Development Board (BRDB). This new IWG, entitled the Advanced Aviation Fuels Interagency Working Group (AAF IWG), will be dedicated to coordinated research and development (R&D) for SAF. As you know, with CAAFI being a public private partnership, we have been collaborating closely on SAF development with multiple agencies. This IWG announcement is the latest progression of such collaboration, which we have been pursuing as a follow-up to the completion of our Farm-to-Fly 2.0 effort. The AAF IWG will support a number of goals including: 1) sharing of information and key findings among federal agencies and coordinating activities; 2) ensuring that R&D efforts reflect the critical needs of commercial, business, and military aviation; 3) developing best practices to foster the success of fuel supply development for the commercial, business, and military aviation sectors; and, 4) developing a revised Federal R&D roadmap on advanced aviation fuels.
CAAFI welcomes the decision by BRDB to establish the IWG. This coordination function will make SAF a priority area of the overall federal effort to stimulate the development of the Bioeconomy and support rural development. CAAFI pledges to work to support the goals of the AAF IWG and the overall mission of the BRDB to implement a federal strategy to develop biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower through the Bioeconomy Initiative. CAAFI Strategy and Implementation Advisor Nate Brown, of the FAA’s Office of Environment and Energy, will co-lead the group with long-time CAAFI collaborators Bill Goldner (USDA) and Zia Haq (DOE) starting this fall.
2) Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Review of Technical Pathways report: This SAF Review (https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/09/f78/beto-sust- aviation-fuel-sep-2020.pdf) was released in September. Closely related to the above, this report highlights the data analysis and conclusions that DOE reached with regard to SAF. This document, as well as an updated version of the 2016 Federal Alternative Jet Fuel R&D Strategy, will be used as the basis for creating an updated and ongoing roadmap to help guide integrated Federal Agency strategy on SAF development and commercialization.
3) Summary of recent DOE funding announcements: As a timely indication of BETO’s continued commitment to SAF, the Department of Energy earlier in the summer announced their intent to award $97 M to 33 R&D projects to accelerate the bioeconomy from the FY2020 Multi-Topic Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Of those, seven projects, awarded $23M, were focused on SAF. Additionally, the DOE Office of Science made an earlier award of $68M to several entities aimed at making bioenergy feedstock crops more productive and resilient. Of particular interest to SAF production concepts, six of those projects (three each award) are focused on pennycress and camelina development, for a combined award of $24M. These projects should be accretive to the work of folks like Global Clean Energy Holdings and CoverCress (and their work with the NIFA/AFRI CAP project IPREFER) who are diligently working to make sustainable seed-oils a major opportunity for renewable fuel and bioproduct production, including SAF. (Come back for my next blog for more information about these opportunities).
The ICAO Stocktaking Seminar on aviation in-sector CO2 emissions reductions took place on September 08-11. These sessions provided summaries of the breadth of activities occurring around the world that are fostering the development of aviation efficiency improvements via Technology, Operations and SAF, coincident with the aviation industry’s commitment to carbon neutral growth from 2020, and the longer term aspiration of achieving a 50% reduction in net CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2050. ICAO’s own observations can be found here, but I was encouraged by the broad recognition from across the world of the need and role for SAF to deliver the significant reductions in CO2 emissions for which we are striving. In a timely news release, the oneworld airline alliance announced a commitment from its 13 airlines to achieve net-zero carbon operations by 2050, also clearly highlighting the importance of SAF to enable such reductions.
The Virtual 2020 Business Aviation Global Sustainability Summit was held on September 14 and 15th, to highlight the interest of the business aviation community in fostering greater availability of SAF. The summit featured participation from key industry leaders, and highlighted the use of SAF by several corporate flight departments. Guest speakers included House aviation subcommittee chairman Rick Larsen (D-Washington) and ranking Republican Garret Graves (Louisiana), as well as Acting Undersecretary for Transportation Policy, Joel Szabat. This Summit was planned and executed by the SAF Coalition. A summary of the event can be found here, and video links to the four summit sessions can be found on CAAFI’s News site listing.
Culminating Boeing’s 2020 ecoDemonstrator activity, airline partner Etihad flew their 787-10 from Seattle to Charleston, SC, using a 50,000 gallon load of 50/50 blend of SAF produced by World Energy and supplied by EPIC Fuels. This blend level validates the ability to produce D7566 compliant SAF at the highest blend level allowed by the specification (as opposed to some fuels being produced at lower levels like 30/70). Taken together with World Energy’s recently improved 75% reduction in carbon index for this HEFA fuel, Etihad was able to achieve a reduction of 37.5% of net CO2 emission on a full flight basis! All of this year’s ecoDemonstrator flights, validating four projects to reduce emissions and noise and to enhance passenger and crew health, were flown on SAF blends. This final Etihad flight coincided with at least the third usage of SAF by Etihad for new aircraft delivery flights.
Finally, I’ll note some other interesting tidbits from the summer:
Commercial and Policy Announcements:
Neste announced they are supplying fuel to American, JetBlue and Alaska at SFO, and announced a new deal with Signature Flight Support to supply fuel to SFO and London Luton for business aviation usage.
Phillips 66 announced their intent to convert the Rodeo refinery to renewable fuel production including SAF, while Total made a similar announcement on their intentions with the Grandpuits refinery.
Gevo fuel will be supplied by Avfuel to additional airport FBOs including Atlantic, and ACI Jet.
The government of Sweden has decided to implement a GHG reduction mandate for jet fuel starting in 2021 at -0.8%, growing to -27% by 2030.
In the UK, the government has announced the formation of the Jet Zero Council, a partnership between industry and government to bring together ministers and chief executive officer-level stakeholders to drive the ambitious delivery of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions. Aviation Minister Robert Courts, announcing their pragmatic approach to the challenge of aviation emission, said: “... through innovative technologies, such as sustainable fuels, hybrid and eventually electric planes, we will build a cleaner, greener and more sustainable future for all.”
Bryan Sherbacow, CCO of World Energy, also indicated we should watch for further reductions in the Carbon Index of their HEFA-SPK, from the currently scored level of minus 75% (CARB and RSB validation), to minus 100% or greater in the new year, based on continued supply chain optimization! Go SAF optimization!
So, being fully aware of humanity’s mortality, and my own specifically, I’ve never been a fan of talking about being glad that time has passed. However, I will say that I’m not anxious for a September 2020 repeat, but I am looking forward to better days for aviation, for SAF, and for a more sustainable future for us all. I find myself regularly needing to take an extra five minutes at lunchtime (when weather cooperates, which it did wonderfully here in Ohio in September), to simply sit in quiet contemplation on the front porch with the sun shining brightly on my face, being thankful for what I do have, recognizing things can always be worse, but recognizing and anticipating that they can be much better. I truly hope you are all able to also find your sunshine moments, and I hope this autumn affords you many such opportunities.
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