Editor's Note: This article is part of AviationPros’ sustainable aviation fuel primer.
As the aviation industry sets its sights on achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, more efforts are being made to make air travel environmentally friendly.
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is playing a key role in this goal.
SAF is in use across the aviation industry. However, at this time, there are ratio limits to how much SAF can be utilized, Pratik Chandhoke, technical services manager SAF at Neste, explained in Ground Support Worldwide.
“Regulations require that sustainable aviation fuel is blended with fossil jet fuel, up to a 50-50 ratio. The blending ratio will ultimately determine the actual emissions reductions realized. Once blended, the fuel meets ASTM specifications,” Chandhoke said.
“The blending requirement ensures that sustainable aviation fuel works safely with older aircraft engines,” he continued. “However, the aviation industry is researching how sustainable aviation fuel can be used in its pure form to power aircraft in the future.”
In 2023, Virgin Atlantic flew the first commercial trans-Atlantic flight powered by 100 percent SAF.
The flight took off from London Heathrow (LTH) and traveled to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK).
“Flight100 proves that sustainable aviation fuel can be used as a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel and it’s the only viable solution for decarbonizing long haul aviation. It’s taken radical collaboration to get here and we’re proud to have reached this important milestone, but we need to push further. There’s simply not enough SAF and it’s clear that in order to reach production at scale, we need to see significantly more investment. This will only happen when regulatory certainty and price support mechanisms, backed by government, are in place. Flight100 proves that if you make it, we’ll fly it,” Shai Weiss, chief executive officer at Virgin Atlantic said in a press release announcing the flight.
