Inadequate government targets and lack of regulation are holding back sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) development, with the current focus on biofuels misplaced as these will play “only a small role”.
That is according to the head of Brussels-based environmental lobby group Transport & Environment William Todts, who insisted: “We need much more.”
Speaking on a webinar hosted by European air navigation body Eurocontrol, Todts said: “The auto industry is being told to end sales of cars with combustion engines by 2035. Aviation will have just 5%-10% of SAF in the system at that time. It’s not enough.”
He noted the EU proposes SAF comprises 5% of aviation fuel in Europe by 2030, although the UK government has set an SAF ‘mandate’ of at least 10% by 2030.
Todts argued: “If we want the aviation sector and fuel suppliers to start investing in different technology, we need something other than just commitments. These are big investments. SAFs are more expensive than kerosene. If you’re a fuel suppler, why would you change to a model that is more expensive?
“We need regulation, and we haven’t had regulation, which is why there isn’t a lot of SAF in the market.
“It sounds heavy-handed. But the lessons of the auto and power sectors are that once this gets going it can go very fast. You get lots of innovation, the price [of technology] comes down and companies get behind it.”
Todts dismissed a suggestion that biofuels made from biowaste offer a solution, arguing: “There is not a lot of biowaste. If you want a lot of biofuels, you need farmland, you start competing with food, so biofuel can only play a small role.”
Instead, he highlighted development of fuels based on hydrogen or ‘e-kerosene’, saying: “In principle, this is scalable. You need renewable power and a source of carbon that initially you take from factories but, ultimately, you take from the air. It’s not an easy solution. It would be easier if we could fit batteries into planes, but we can’t.”
But he said: “We can do a lot with incentives and regulation. We need a system where entrants are certain of a market for their product. One of the few guaranteed markets in Europe [for hydrogen] is going to be aviation.”