The "flying" of gutter oil into the sky is just the beginning
In the future, SAF will move from a single to a multi-faceted one
Many people may not have thought that the gutter oil that has been "discarded" by people can be turned into fuel to drive aircraft to fly. Recently, a number of airlines have announced that they will actively explore the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). At the end of 2023, a British Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 passenger plane flew from London Heathrow Airport to New York, becoming the world's first intercontinental flight to carry 100% sustainable aviation fuel.
SAF is made from waste animal and vegetable fats and fats, oilseeds, used cooking oil, municipal solid waste, and agricultural and forestry waste. Compared to traditional petroleum-based fuels, SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 85% over its entire life cycle.
"SAF is an inevitable means for the civil aviation industry to achieve carbon neutrality, and the world is committed to promoting the use of SAF. Xia Zuxi, director of the Aviation Oil Airworthiness Certification Center of the Second Research Institute of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, called on the development of SAF in the mainland to strengthen the top-level design, accelerate the reserve of new technologies, and rely on scientific research institutes and universities to carry out SAF multi-raw material and multi-process research in line with the national conditions of the mainland, expand the mainland SAF process, and promote the development of SAF from singularity to diversification.
Countries have successively set targets for the application of SAF
Research data shows that the carbon emissions of aircraft aviation fuel combustion account for 79% of the total carbon emissions of civil aviation, and reducing aviation fuel carbon emissions has become a key issue for carbon emission reduction in the civil aviation industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts that by 2050, 65% of carbon reductions in the aviation industry will be achieved through the use of SAF.
Gong Feng, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and deputy general manager of China National Aviation Fuel Group Co., Ltd., told Science and Technology Daily that the development of SAF is regarded as the most potential emission reduction measure for the civil aviation industry to achieve the goal of net-zero carbon emissions. At present, IATA, the European Union, the United States and the mainland have all set short, medium and long-term SAF application targets and aviation carbon reduction targets.
For example, the European Union requires that the mandatory blending ratio of SAF be increased from 2% to 70% by 2050. The United States has proposed that all aviation fuel in 2050 will come from SAF. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries have also formulated plans for the use of SAF, and put forward the basic goal of achieving more than 30% of the use of SAF by 2050.
Continental is actively promoting the application of SAF. The "14th Five-Year Plan" for the green development of civil aviation proposes to strive for SAF consumption to reach more than 20,000 tons in 2025. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China jointly issued the "Green Aviation Manufacturing Industry Development Outline (2023-2035)", which proposes that by 2025, domestic civil aircraft using SAF will be demonstratively applied.
"SAF is identical in composition, performance and function to petroleum-based aviation fuel, and the use of SAF requires little to no additional changes to existing aircraft and aviation infrastructure. Gong Feng said that this is a major advantage of SAF application, and countries therefore attach great importance to the research and development and application of SAF.
Gong Feng introduced that at present, SAF has achieved normalized supply in 69 foreign airports and reached the level of batch supply in 40 airports. In terms of flights, there have been 520,000 commercial flights using SAF worldwide. "Although the current global SAF production capacity is less than 2 million tons, there are 211 SAF production facilities under construction around the world, with a total capacity of 58.56 million tons. Gong Feng said.
Promote the diversification of SAF production processes
At present, the raw materials for the production of SAF are mainly divided into three types: esters, cellulose and gases. Among them, ester raw materials include waste oil, oil-based biomass and seaweed, cellulose raw materials include agricultural and forestry wastes and municipal solid waste, and gaseous raw materials include industrial waste gases, carbon dioxide and green hydrogen captured from the air.
"The representative production process of ester raw materials is the HEFA production process, which is the full name of ester and fatty acid hydrogenation, which is currently the most mature SAF production process in the world. Xia Zuxi said that the development of the HEFA production process in mainland China is relatively mature, and the SAF independently produced by Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery using the HEFA production process has been approved for airworthiness and put into civil aviation use in 2022.
"At present, only the industrialization of the HEFA production process in mainland China is mature. Xia Zuxi said that the production of SAF of cellulose and gas raw materials in the mainland is still in the research stage, and the related technology is not yet mature, and there is still a long distance from industrialization, and it is difficult to put it into the civil aviation market in the short term.
In this regard, Xia Zuxi suggested that the reserve of new technologies should be accelerated. "In terms of process technology, we will strengthen investment in scientific research, open up the whole process of small-scale production in the laboratory, and then cooperate with well-known domestic enterprises, petroleum and petrochemical enterprises, investment companies, etc. to carry out pilot scale-up, realize industrialization, expand the new process of mainland SAF, and promote the development of SAF from simplification to diversification. ”
"Promoting the green transformation of aviation energy and strengthening the R&D and application of SAF production technology is the key to breaking the situation. Gong Feng introduced that in 2019, China National Aviation Fuel Group cooperated with the Guangzhou Institute of Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to undertake the project of "Research and Demonstration of Cellulose Biomass Catalytic Preparation of Biojet Fuel", and in 2021, it cooperated with the Second Institute of Civil Aviation to undertake the project of "Research on Combustion Characteristics of Aviation Alternative Fuels and Theoretical Methods of Airworthiness Certification". In the future, the Group will accelerate the progress of technology research and development, promote the research on SAF blending, testing, transportation, storage, filling, safety assurance and quality control, and strengthen the reserve and formulation of relevant technical standards.
Explore a new path for the industrialization of SAF
At the green sub-forum of the first CATA Aviation Conference held at the end of 2023, Ren Yingli, vice chairman of the China Air Transport Association, believes that the mainland SAF industry needs national support at this stage without a breakthrough in SAF production technology.
The reporter learned that under the guidance of the leading group for civil aviation carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the China Air Transport Association and its joint member units have carried out research on the promotion process of the commercial application of domestic SAF. The results of the study show that the cost difference between applying SAF and offsetting the same amount of CO2 with the market mechanism is nearly 20 times.
Ren Yingli believes that at this stage, airlines are still facing severe cost pressure from SAF to replace traditional fuels. Compared with other market offset mechanisms, it is urgent to formulate mandatory promotion measures for SAF to stimulate market consumption, expand production scale, and reduce SAF costs.
Xia Zuxi has the same view. He believes that the SAF industry has not formed a large-scale production and supply, and there is a lack of clear long-term use goals and roadmaps, which lead to the high price of SAF and restrict the large-scale use of SAF in mainland China.
Xia Zuxi introduced that in order to promote the use of SAF, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have all formulated specific targets for the use of SAF. The U.S. subsidizes airlines that use SAF through incentives. The EU law calls for 2%, 20% and 70% of SAF use by 2025, 2035 and 2050, respectively, and fines are imposed on stakeholders who fail to meet the set targets.
Xia Zuxi believes that relevant ministries and commissions should form a joint working mechanism to clarify the industrial support, taxation, finance and promotion and use policies of SAF. At the same time, we will establish an industrial chain coordination mechanism to allow stakeholders to participate more in the construction of SAF's industrial chain. In addition, it is necessary to learn from the advanced experience of foreign countries to build a business model for domestic SAF.
"SAF is the key to the implementation of the 'dual carbon' goal in the civil aviation industry, and the top-level design should be strengthened from the national strategic level, the strategic positioning of SAF should be further clarified, the medium and long-term development plan of SAF should be studied and introduced, and the development of the whole chain of the SAF industry should be accelerated. Ren Yingli suggested that the aviation green energy industry alliance should be gradually formed at the national level to systematically promote the development of the mainland SAF industry chain from technology, market, policy and other aspects, so as to better serve the deep decarbonization of the civil aviation industry. (Reporter Sun Yu)