Environment
making progress. Traditionally, airlines have relied on so-called ‘biomass-to-liquid’ (BtL) fuels, whereby plant materials are turned into petrol. But, as Häberlein explains, while this approach is far superior to old- fashioned fossil fuels, it suffers from environmental drawbacks. Among other things, BtLs still emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. More recently, though, aviation has been investing in greener alternatives. A particularly exciting model is the ‘power-to-liquid’ (PtL) approach, which involves mixing sustainably sourced carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Nor, Häberlein emphasises, is this simply a scientific hypothetical. To take but one example, Airbus is now partnering with the SAF+ Consortium, a Canadian group, to secure wide-scale PtL production.
Fuel for the future
Above: Aviation still heavily relies on fossil fuels, consuming 360bn litres in 2019 alone.
Opposite page: While SAFs have environmental benefits compared with fossil fuels, they have high costs and supply issues.
making progress. Even so, it remains to be seen if the aviation industry can truly fulfil all the good words that came out of Glasgow.
2.5% Our World in Data 12
Percentage of global carbon emissions are contributed by the aviation industry, almost equivalent to the emissions produced by the African continent.
Combusting old ideas Even recently, sustainable fuels only represented a fraction of the aviation fuel market. According to work by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), 2013–15 saw an average of just 0.29 million litres of SAF leave production lines each year. To put that into perspective, jet engines guzzled 360 billion litres of fossil fuels in 2019 alone. Yet, speak to Stefan Häberlein and it is clear that change is coming fast – and he should know. As Munich Airport’s vice-president of corporate strategy and sustainability for the past decade, he has seen a dramatic rise in the use of SAFs, describing them as a “solution that can achieve complete de-carbonisation in aviation”. At any rate, this is reflected in the numbers. They may still be vastly outnumbered by fossil fuels, but 370,000 flights have used SAFs since 2016, with 100 million litres produced in 2021. The reasons for this shift can be understood in several ways. Perhaps most important is the increasing environmental pressure on global aviation. Media- friendly summits like COP26 are undoubtedly part of the equation, as are tenacious campaigners like Greta Thunberg. But for Andrew Murphy, aviation director at the Transport and Environment campaign group, the real transformation happened in the minds of aviation insiders. “Eventually,” Murphy says, “the message got through that it’s not a case of being more efficient burning fossil fuels, and it’s not a case of offsetting your fossil fuel combustion.” The solution – the only solution – is “to stop combusting fossil fuels in the first place”. Certainly, this revelation could explain a new rush of industry initiatives. That includes mandatory quotas for renewable fuels, currently being discussed in Germany, as well as similar noises from the White House. All this would mean little if SAFs themselves did not actually help the planet – but here too the industry is
Munich Airport feels like the appropriate spot to launch an environmental revolution. Lying like a contented herd of cattle some 20 miles northeast of the city proper, it is surrounded by a greenbelt of over 5,000 hectares. Over 6,000 trees are planted here, and rich meadows share their bounty with sand lizards and bees. As long ago as 2010, the airport was the first in Germany to receive Airport Council International’s most prestigious carbon-busting prize. No wonder Häberlein describes Munich’s carbon policy as “a key component of our modern and sustainable corporate strategy” – something that now covers everything from battling noise pollution to fighting wind erosion. To put it another way, Munich’s newest project – this time focused on SAFs – could almost be forgotten amid everything else the airport is promoting. But investigate the scheme further, and it soon becomes clear that it deserves special praise too. This is clear, if nothing else, in the airport’s remarkable attention to detail. Häberlein and his colleagues have erected Munich’s SAF infrastructure from scratch – for instance, by building a special tank farm to store sustainable fuel before it is needed by aircraft. That is echoed by close relationships with operators, with airport and airlines working together to check fuel for quality before it enters tanks. Nor are these checks purely for safety purposes. Häberlein and his team soon realised that fuels with SAF content of up to 50% could be pumped into planes without any fundamental infrastructure changes.
As that last point implies, integrating SAFs into a traditional fuel structure can be done relatively simply. “It can be mixed directly into fuel tanks,” emphasises Murphy. “Airports and fuel suppliers may want to monitor who uses the SAF – but it’s not a huge change for airports.” Certainly, this simplicity is reflected in the range of places introducing sustainable fuel to their stockpiles. Staying in the Federal Republic, for instance, Frankfurt and Stuttgart are just two of the German airports experimenting with SAF. Across the North Sea,
Future Airport /
www.futureairport.com
Munich Airport
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