(Credit: Air Company)At a time when sustainable travel has increasingly come under the spotlight, and when airlines are experimenting with the use of sustainable aviation fuel, one company has launch an aviation fuel that it says will have significant long-term implications. Air Company, a carbon technology company that creates carbon-negative alcohols and fuels from carbon dioxide (CO2), has launched a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from captured CO2.
Global aviation partners for this 100% unblended CO2-derived jet fuel — distributed under the name Airmade SAF — have committed to purchase over one billion gallons; these include JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic, and Boom Supersonic, among others. The United States Air Force has already started its Airmade SAF partnership with the completion of an unmanned flight using Airmade SAF.
This technology will be applied globally with significant future implications, especially as it pertains to the levels of fuel production and consumption that we see from the energy industry today, the company says.
Aviation as a whole represents 2% to 3% of global CO2 emissions and is widely considered one of the most "hard to decarbonize" industries. With this announcement, Air Company and its partners aim to mitigate that impact, enabling a circular process that has the potential to address over one billion metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. Using the same technology that mimics photosynthesis to create its consumer ethanol, Air Company has developed and deployed its single-step process for CO2-derived fuel production using renewable electricity.
Over the past year, many airlines have announced their plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To reach the goal, they say they will work with the government and other stakeholders toward a rapid expansion of the production and deployment of commercially viable SAF in order to make two billion gallons available to US aircraft operators in 2030. The airlines have also suggested a number of initiatives the government can take to help the aviation industry achieve its goals.
According to Teresa Ehman, senior director of environmental affairs at Air Canada, said sustainable aviation fuels are the main way the aviation industry as a whole will reduce their GHG emissions,
Air Canada is a signatory of the Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition. The coalition’s mission is to accelerate the deployment and use of sustainable aviation fuel technologies to reach 10% of the global jet aviation fuel supply by 2030.
