Time to accelerate Australia’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel industry

Producing feedstock for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) needs to become a priority in Australia in order to keep up with the rest of the world on decarbonising emissions in the aviation industry. The message was loud and clear at the 2024 Low Carbon Fuel Summit held in Perth on October 11. As airlines around the world look to reduce their emissions the production of SAF in Australia is a no brainer, not only to supply Australia’s domestic airlines but the millions of international flights that come into this country and need to refuel every year. SAF is produced using a list of ingredients from non-petroleum renewable feedstocks such as woody biomass, fats, greases, oils, municipal solid waste (which is produced from garbage). Participants at the summit were told the aviation industry has few other alternatives to reduce their emissions and that global demand for SAF was likely to increase demand for feedstocks to more than 400 million tonnes by 2050. Currently the global aviation industry is using an estimated 0.5 million tonnes of feedstock for SAF production with it predicted by 2030 demand will be around 20 million tonnes. According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, more than 360,000 commercial flights have used SAF at 46 different airports largely concentrated in the US and Europe. Airlines for Australia and New Zealand director of policy and advocacy Emma Wilson spoke at the summit and said already in the UK, Europe and US airlines have been working towards incorporating SAF into their businesses, with more than 20 years of international research behind its production and safe use. She said Australia was in an advantageous position of being able to now enter the SAF manufacturing industry at a time when there is a lot more information available in combination with growing global demand. Qantas Head of Sustainable Aviation Fuel Graeme Potger said Qantas was working hard to build the commercial structures needed for the use of SAF throughout it’s business. “Airlines are a notoriously low margin business,” Mr Potger said. “On average flight profits are between $5 and $6 per customer.” He said for the aviation industry to decarbonise rapidly and make the uptake of SAF mainstream Australia needed to be ‘looking outside of the coffee cup’ to make it commercially viable. “It has been estimated the cost of transition for the global aviation industry to SAF will be $4.7 trillion,” Mr Potger said “The global challenge is monumental.” He said Qantas was committed to projects in Australia which were working towards decarbonisation and SAF production such as using pyrolysis to create SAF using oil mallee and spotted gum woody waste. Other sources of feedstock for SAF production were also explored at the summit including fats and oils. Neste Australia general manager James Williamson said Neste was at the forefront of using fats and oils to create diesel alternatives. He said the Neste facilities in Asia, Europe and North America were actually ‘walking the talk’ when it came to making fuel from these waste products. He said at present only a relatively small quantity of their renewable diesel was shipped to Australia for use which was surprising. Global company LanzaJet is already operating in Australia and their mantra ‘Someday is now’ is coming through loud and clear with the company beginning in 2010 and now operating in 26 countries across five continents, including two key projects in Queensland. LanzaJet regional director Asia-Pacific Flyn van Ewijk said when it came to decarbonisation of the economy urgent action was needed now. “We are seeing an increased intensity and frequency in extreme weather events such as hurricane events in America over recent weeks,” Mr van Ewijk said. “Australia is also not immune to extreme weather events.” LanzaJet has already announced projects that will lead to more than 300 million gallons of annual SAF capacity aiming to produce one billion gallons by 2030.