Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and consumption in the Asia-Pacific area are relatively low, but initiatives to advance sustainability in the aviation sector in this region are catching up with those in Europe and North America.
The region is currently attempting to reduce its overall carbon dioxide emissions as environmental preservation gains importance for the worldwide aviation industry.
Asian airlines are getting ready to increase the size of their biofuel refineries in Singapore. The sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a biofuel made from cooking oil and animal fats, will be manufactured at Neste’s new, $1.75 million biofuel refinery in Singapore. Neste is a Finnish bioenergy company. Market leaders in Europe have started producing SAF already, while Singapore has a production capacity of 1 million tons annually.
Throughout its entire life cycle, from the manufacture of raw materials and refining to the combustion of energy, SAF is believed to produce 80% less carbon dioxide than traditional aviation fuels.
According to information from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), more than 300 million liters of SAF were produced worldwide in 2022.
According to Sami Jauhiainen of Neste’s Renewable Aviation business section, the company has sourced a sizable amount of garbage and byproducts from all around the Asia-Pacific area.
The demand for quick operational modifications is present in the aviation sector, one of the top global emitters of carbon dioxide.
All Nippon Airways’ (ANA) Kohei Yoshikawa, Head of Carbon Reduction, expressed worry, saying, “If we fail to comply with global environmental regulations, we may not be able to use planes in the future.”
IATA decided to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050 in October 2020. An intergovernmental aviation organization called the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) similarly modified its goals in order to meet the same objective the following year. IATA is sure that adopting SAF can assist the aviation sector in achieving 65% of its goal after merging the outcomes.
The Asia-Pacific region produces and consumes relatively little SAF, and efforts to promote sustainability in the aviation industry in this region are catching up to those in Europe and North America, said Philip Goh, vice president of IATA’s Asia-Pacific regional office, who emphasized that governments need to play a role.
Both the US and Europe have taken the lead in establishing sustainability goals in this area. The United States passed a resolution in 2020 to guarantee that by 2033, the supply of SAF will fully satisfy the demand.
In the meantime, the European Union (EU) has put policies in place to mandate European airports use a minimum of 34% SAF by 2030 and 70% by 2050.
Several significant airlines, like American Airlines, Air France, and several others, each have their unique goals. By 2030, they want to replace 10% of their general aviation aircraft operations with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), an alternative to conventional jet fuel. Ryanair, a low-cost airline, has established a goal that by 2050, 12.5% of its flights will be SAF.
But before SAF is extensively used, there are many obstacles to be solved. Currently, it’s thought that only 0.10–0.15% of the world’s SAF output meets the demand for aviation fuel. Only a few companies, like as Neste and LanzaJet, are able to create considerable amounts of SAF. Airlines are looking for additional energy sources as a result of this circumstance.
Despite the possibility of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, it poses a barrier for the production of SAF. SAF would likely be produced in quantities of up to 499 billion liters annually. The fact that SAF is more expensive than regular aviation fuel—costing roughly two to five times more—presents a challenge.
The Institute of Future Initiatives at the University of Tokyo’s Yasunori Kikuchi stated that if the SAF supply chain could be built, prices will go down eventually. We need to talk about who amongst airlines and passengers should pay the extra expenses. If aviation is a cornerstone of society, then the government ought to step in and offer assistance.
