In a world with an ever-increasing global warming crisis, there are several industries that are essential to the world that require the burning of fossil fuels. Aviation is an industry that the planet relies on for numerous factors, and without it, society would not function as it does today. Aircrafts, however, burn an extraordinary amount of fuel. For example, filling the tanks of an Airbus A380 will cost around a quarter of a million US dollars, and can burn around 16 tonnes of fuel each hour. To make it worse, the emissions are released 35,000ft above the Earth and placed directly into the stratosphere. Not only is this a carbon emissions issue, the fossil fuels used are beginning to be exhausted.

Several organisations, namely the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG) aim to introduce sustainable aircraft power system through the use of biofuels. Many current airlines including Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, all 3 Virgin airlines, Air France and more are part of SAFUG. Together they aim to develop sustainable aviation biofuels in order to reach carbon-neutral growth in the aviation industry by 2020.

Biofuels are created from plants and algae and are intended to exceed aircraft safety standards, not jeopardise crops or drinking water, and minimise impact on ecosystems and the general environment.

Algae and plants absorb carbon dioxide and their biomass is later harvested and taken to biofuel refineries to be converted into jet fuel. Aircrafts operating with biofuels shall only release carbon that has been absorbed by these plants, thereby reducing the environmental impact.

As well as plants and algae, the fuels can be derived from waste cooking oil, industrial by-products or municipal waste. Whilst petroleum fuels add additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, biofuels simply recycle carbon already present in biomass and waste. This results in a better overal carbon lifecycle as the carbon is more or less being completely cycled, instead of being added on to the global cycle.

The other major benefit of biofuels include the economic benefits for airlines. By far, the biggest costs faced by airlines are fuel costs. Biofuels, at a much lower price, will dramatically reduce airline spending, thereby increasing profits in the already not-so-profitable industry.

One of the major issues with biofuels in aviation is the concern over safety. Jet fuels are highly refined in order to remove any impurities that could cause an engine failure or malfunction, jeopardising the lives of hundreds of people. Biojet-fuels need to be refined with extra care in order to meet and exceed aviation standards.

To date, more than 1,500 passenger flights have been flown using pure biofuel or a biofuel/kerosene mix. Air France, ANA, GOL, Qantas and United Airlines have all performed several biofuel flights. Japan’s ANA flew their first 787 using a biofuel blend on its delivery flight from Everett, Washington, USA to Tokyo, Japan.

Biofuels will pave the way for a more sustainable, environmentally friendly future for aviation. Aviation is an extraordinarily large and important industry for society, and a carbon-neutral future for the industry is essential. By 2020, a large proportion of all air travel hopes to be carbon-neutral.

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Ashan Karunagaran (11/KL)
Sustainability Committee Member