United Airlines of North America on Wednesday (1) carried out the country’s first non-fossil-fuel passenger flight. Instead, the company used a fuel made from materials such as used cooking oil and other fats.
This initiative became a milestone in aviation history because it was the first to take passengers using only sustainable jet fuel (SAF, its English acronym, which stands for Sustainable Aviation Fuel). Information from the Fast Company website.
Departing Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for Washington (DC) with 100 passengers, the United’s 737 Max 8 was fueled with 500 gallons of SAF in one of its engines and the same amount of conventional fuel in the other to prove it. There are no operational differences between the two.
Currently, regulations in the United States only allow the supply of sustainable fuel blends with a maximum of 50% of the total used by the aircraft.
The science behind sustainable fuels
Today’s flight fuel, produced by the global energy company, is made from fats, cooking oils and grease and blended with compound compounds called aromatics that are typically made from fossil fuels, but in this case derived from plant sugars.
According to the company, when the first sustainable aviation fuel was produced, it was necessary to blend it with petroleum fuels to obtain the correct chemical composition to meet industry standards. But this is no longer the case due to new botanical aromatics.
Using these tires reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to regular jet fuels.
“This is an important milestone that demonstrates that the future must revolve around sustainable aviation,” Lauren Riley, managing director of global environmental affairs and sustainability at United Airlines, says in an interview with Fast Company.
Today, according to the executive branch, 98% of the greenhouse gas emissions in United Airlines’ operations come from the consumption of jet fuel.
“Transitioning to alternative fuels, such as sustainable jet fuel, is very important because it significantly reduces overall emissions from flights,” Riley says.
How it works
Instead of being refined from petroleum, SAF is produced from sustainable raw materials and is very similar in chemical composition to conventional fossil fuels.
As well as those used by the company Globalism energy, the main base ingredients are used oils of biological origin – vegetable oils, for example – fats left over from animals or plants, solid waste from homes and businesses, such as packaging, paper, textiles and food waste that would otherwise go to landfills or incineration. Other potential sources include forests and agricultural waste.
For its production, raw materials, such as vegetable oil, for example, undergo cracking processes – also referred to as pyrolysis – and hydrotreating, in which complex organic molecules are broken down into simpler ones under conditions of high temperature and pressure.
In the end, light and short-chained hydrocarbons, called SPK (synthetic paraffin kerosene), are obtained with the management of fuel pollutants, such as sulfur, nitrogen or heavy metals, eliminated.
sustainable future
The technology has already advanced, but there are still some hurdles for all flights to start using SAF, starting with the regulations. In the United States, airlines that use sustainable jet fuel are required to limit themselves to using a blend of 50% fossil fuels, as noted at the beginning of this text.
Special clearance was granted for the United flight, but it required that one of the engines be filled with regular jet fuel, even if it was not used.
Another challenge is that companies still have problems with supply and demand. According to the director of United, the amount of sustainable fuel the company provides is “much less than 0.1% of our fuel supply, and we are the market leaders,” says Riley. “So there is not enough now, and that is unacceptable.”
The airline, among other companies, is pushing for a new federal policy in the United States for tax incentives to produce and use alternative fuels. For Riley, this will give a long-term signal to producers to increase production.
Also according to the Executive, other possibilities for sustainable aviation are synthetic fuels rather than biofuels. Electric or hydrogen-powered aircraft are also being developed, but these solutions will only serve shorter paths. “The reality is that, at least where the technology is now, hydrogen and electricity will be much more useful on our short-haul flights. That is, regional distances,” Riley says.
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