No one says that weaning air transport off its dependence on fossil fuels will be easy. For those with any doubt about the scale of the challenge, however, a new report from the UK’s Royal Society provides sober reading material, concluding that no single path to achieving net zero carbon exists and that the avenues now being explored are all fraught with technological and practical difficulties.
The "Net Zero Aviation Fuels: Resource Requirements and Environmental Impacts" paper published on February 28 focuses on four sustainable alternatives to jet-A fuel: hydrogen, ammonia, synthetic efuels, and biofuels. A working group led by Cardiff University’s professor Graham Hutchings assessed these options against the following considerations: the equivalent resources that would be required to replace fossil fuel, a lifecycle analysis and non-carbon-dioxide environmental impacts, likely costs, and modifications and replacement needed to implement the option.
