LONDON — On Tuesday, the first transatlantic flight fueled entirely by sustainable aviation fuel departed from London to New York, as the industry aims to demonstrate the viability of eco-friendly air travel.
Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787s use a blend of 88% waste fat from AirBP and 12% synthetic aromatic kerosene made from plant sugars.
According to Flightradar24 data, the test flight VIR100, which had no paying passengers, took off from London Heathrow Airport at 11:49 a.m. UK time (6:49 a.m. ET) and landed at New York JFK Airport, scheduled to arrive shortly before 2 p.m. Eastern time.
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is a general term for non-fossil-based fuels, including biofuels derived from plant and animal raw materials, municipal waste, and agricultural residues.
While emissions still occur, advocates argue that the overall “lifecycle emissions” from this fuel are significantly lower than those from regular petroleum-based fuels.
Other airlines Have you ever used SAF? It can be used on commercial flights, but usually on short-haul flights, mixed with up to 50% of conventional fuel, which was previously regulated. Tuesday’s Virgin Atlantic flight was approved by the UK Civil Aviation Authority earlier this month.
In 2021, a group of 60 companies in the aviation, transportation, and cargo industries pledged to reach 10% of SAF usage in global jet aviation fuel supply by 2030.
The advantage of SAF is that it can be used without modification of existing aircraft engines. Many airlines pledged to make investments to increase their fuel usage as they strive to reduce overall emissions during flight, including by using more fuel-efficient aircraft.
However, many challenges remain before widespread adoption, including supply shortages, high costs, and concerns about the sustainability of power generation.
There are relatively few factories producing SAF or companies shipping SAF around the world. Incentives for producers are hampered by low profits, and the Royal Society warned in a report earlier this year that only some biofuels are low carbon and feedstock availability is a challenge for scale-up.
Several groups discuss how increased production of biofuels risks exacerbating deforestation and food shortages. They argue that reducing the environmental impact of aviation, which contributes to around 2% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, requires reducing the number of flights operated.
Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss stated that the flight demonstrated that SAF could be used as a “safe drop-in replacement for fossil-based jet fuel, helping to decarbonize long-haul aviation” and that it would prove to be the only viable solution. “SAF is simply in short supply, and it is clear that significant further investment will be required to reach large-scale production. This will only happen if the facilities are in place,” he added.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
