Refueling plane with sustainable aviation fuel in Rotterdam. This article is sponsored by Shell. On Jan. 22, history was made when a KLM jet took off from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and landed safely in Madrid. The flight was the world’s first to use certified synthetic kerosene, made from CO2, water and renewable energy. The captain informed passengers this was a big step for the industry - although they hadn’t noticed any difference on the flight. The importance of introducing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is not lost on the airline giant, however, nor on one of its partners, Shell. The synthetic kerosene was developed in the Shell Technology Center in Amsterdam, synthesized from hydrogen, recycled carbon dioxide, water and renewable power from solar panels and Dutch wind turbines. The fuel, produced using recycled carbon emissions from Shell’s Pernis refinery in Rotterdam and a Dutch dairy farm, offers a significant life-cycle carbon emission reduction compared to conventional jet fuel, and can be used in an aircraft without requiring any technical modification to the engine. So, it’s a fuel made from waste gas and renewable power: Why doesn’t every airplane in the world use it? This flight took 132 gallons of renewable fuel and was blended with conventional kerosene, raising the issue of scale. This is an early-stage technology, which in the future could lead to scaled production from waste feedstocks and help deliver a greater volume of SAF to the market. Supporting technology pathways such as this is critical as SAF production today is less than 1 percent of overall jet fuel supply. In addition, the price of SAF is at multiple to jet kerosene for the most readily available technologies (at pre-COVID-19 oil prices), and significantly more for others, precluding a large-scale uptake in a highly cost-competitive sector. Yet, SAF is a key part of the aviation industry’s plan to reduce carbon emissions in the coming... |