While Airbus appears determined not to take its eye off the long-term prize of bringing a hydrogen-powered airliner to market by 2035, the European airframer hasn’t lost sight of the reality that airlines’ use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will serve as a key pathway to reducing air transport’s contribution to climate change over the next decade. In fact, a recent agreement the company entered with Finnish oil refining group Neste to collaborate on accelerating the aviation sector’s transition to SAF represents just one component of what Airbus promotes as an immediate need to decarbonize.
Panelists appearing in Toulouse during Airbus’s recent Sustainability Summit agreed that the biggest challenge as it relates to SAF centers on availability and the sheer volumes the industry will need to meet its carbon reduction targets. Neste vice president for sustainable aviation Thorsten Lange addressed the question of how to get enough SAF to the right places at the right time. “Depending on who you ask, the world global consumption of conventional fuels is between 300 and 360 million tonnes a year,” he noted. “Neste, being the world's largest producer of sustainable aviation fuel, has been producing and delivering this year 100,000 tonnes. That shows you a bit the calamities we are in here and the challenges we have.”
More In Aircraft
