Climate kerosene from Bavaria
Created: 06/24/2022, 06:00
By: Hans Moritz
Ready for more climate protection in air traffic: Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger, Prime Minister Markus Söder and FMG boss Jost Lammers (from right) presented the Bavarian SAF strategy high above the east apron.
© Stephan Goerlich
A production facility for synthetic aviation fuel (“Sustainable Aviation Fuels”/SAF) is to be set up in Bavaria.
This is the only way air traffic can become more climate-friendly.
Airport - This was confirmed on Thursday by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (FW) and Airport Manager Jost Lammers at a congress of the "Cleantech" working group at Munich Airport.
Aiwanger indicated Burghausen as a possible location.
SAF is created using the power-to-liquid process.
The basic components are electricity from the sun, water or wind and CO2 from the air.
The fuel generated in this way is climate-neutral.
Time is running out.
According to the Federal Immission Control Act, 0.5 percent from 2026, one percent from 2028 and two percent from 2030 of the kerosene used in Germany must be provided from non-biogenic renewable energies.
With the current annual consumption in Germany of around ten million tons, this corresponds to 50,000 tons in 2026 and 200,000 tons in 2030.
In order to generate half a percent of SAF, i.e. 50,000 tons, Aiwanger calculated, you would need four terawatts of electricity.
That would correspond to a third of the annual output of the nuclear power plant near Landshut or the output of 300 wind turbines.
These dimensions showed “that we cannot do it alone”.
You need international partners in industry and science.
The SAF could be delivered with the ships currently cruising crude oil.
Aiwanger made it clear just how urgently time is running: “Mr. Lammers and I actually don't want a feasibility study at all because we know that we need it.
We will give birth to the child here.” According to Aiwanger, the gas alert level announced on Thursday shows “how the hut is on fire”.
The Ministry of Economics had already set up the “Cleantech in Aviation” working group in 2020.
Of course, Aiwanger commissioned the feasibility study.
He expects the first results in a few weeks.
Lufthansa, the mineral oil company OMV, Bayernwerk, Siemens, MAN, the Technical University of Munich and the German Aerospace Center are all involved.
SAF has been available to the airlines at Moos Airport for a year.
Freddie Moritz from Skytanking explained that the SAF Plant currently used consists of 33 percent synthetic kerosene, but currently still 66 percent fossil, i.e. mineral oil.
Lammers had previously pointed out that the problem with the rapid change of course was that the CO2-free aviation fuel was only available in very limited quantities and was very expensive due to the complex production process.
also read
Risky overtake: Two seriously injured
The Air Force One: Joe Biden's G7 arrival in the world's most famous aviator
Söder said Bavaria will position itself broadly in terms of energy.
"We need everything, every contribution counts".
He criticized the federal government's either-or policy and its neglect of the South.
Söder is of the opinion "that a policy of renunciation is not the right way and that people are not willing to go down it".
It is better not to abolish old technologies (“not even cars with combustion engines”), but to develop new technologies with industry and science.
In the future, the only way to explore the world will be by plane.
"Flying is part of a free, emancipated society," says Söder.
Lammers said that FMG has had a climate protection strategy since 2008.
The aim is to be climate-neutral by 2030 – with 300 measures and 150 million euros in investments.
As examples, he named the LED apron lighting, already 40 percent e-mobility and the climate forest in Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate.
However, most of the CO2 is not generated by the airports, but by the airlines.