The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Climate-neutral flying: How aviation wants to become clean

2022-07-18T11:27:57.137Z


In view of the EU's ambitious climate targets, the aviation industry must also significantly reduce its CO2 emissions. What technologies are available and what problems are companies facing?


Enlarge image

Flying without emissions:

Alternative types of propulsion are still too immature, so the industry is relying on synthetic fuels

Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / picture alliance / dpa

Global air traffic will double in the next 20 years.

But the atmosphere cannot tolerate twice as many pollutants.

Tom Enders

(

63), former head of Airbus, and

Ralf Fücks

(70), board member of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is close to the Greens, recently agreed on this at the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin.

But what is the solution to the problem?

At this year's ILA, "climate-neutral flying" was one of the central themes.

Although aviation is currently only responsible for 3 percent of global emissions of the climate-damaging gas carbon dioxide (the real estate sector is a far bigger polluter), the situation could change quickly.

Many industries have more diverse and faster ways to reduce their emissions.

The faster they make progress, the more important aviation will be as a polluter on the way to climate neutrality.

But alternative types of propulsion such as hydrogen jets or electric aircraft are still in their infancy.

Only the use of sustainable fuels "enables a trend reversal in emissions at all," according to a recent study by the German Aerospace Center.

After all, airplanes have a long service life, the jets in use today will be in service for another 25 years on average.

Fuel manufacturers and airlines therefore rely on the so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), i.e. synthetic fuels that are produced without using fossil energy sources and can be burned in today's turbines.

Different generations can be distinguished.

First generation: Biomass from crops

The first generation of SAFs are made from biomass, including crops such as rapeseed, sugar beets or soybeans, but also animal fats, algae or wood.

During combustion, the fuels only emit as much carbon dioxide as the plants used previously absorbed during growth.

In total, no more carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere.

However, the production and processing of the biomass produces emissions that must be taken into account in the climate balance.

In addition, the starting material is only available in limited quantities.

The main disadvantage of SAFs from biomass is the problematic use of plants that could actually serve as food and thus compete with the cultivation of food.

This type of fuel has therefore proven to be ineffective.

Second generation: biomass from waste

The second and most widespread generation today relies on biomass from waste.

The British energy company BP has recently been producing aircraft fuel from cooking fat residues in Emsland.

The raw materials come from canteens or catering establishments, for example.

There are leftover fats and oils, for example from deep fryers, cooking residues and biomass waste.

Airlines are already experimenting diligently with this fuel, but SAF is mainly only mixed with classic kerosene.

In May of this year, for example, an Air France plane took off with a mixture of kerosene and the substitute made from used cooking oil.

The Airbus A350 even made it across the Atlantic.

A few years ago, the Australian airline Qantas started a similar pilot project: They flew a Boeing "Dreamliner" with a kerosene substitute made from plant seeds.

In the meantime, even the first aircraft that were powered entirely by biomass fuel have taken off: In October 2021, an Airbus A319 flew for the first time without conventional kerosene, followed in March 2022 by an A380.

But even the biomass from waste is only available to a limited extent and can also be used for other applications, such as district heating.

Third generation: power-to-liquid fuels

The production of synthetic fuel based on the power-to-liquid process (PtL) is therefore currently considered the most promising technology in the aviation industry's fight against CO2 emissions.

The fuel is produced from carbon dioxide and water using green electricity.

The carbon dioxide emitted during combustion is compensated for by previously removing the carbon from the air or waste from the cycle.

As a result, this synthetic kerosene is completely CO2-neutral and, according to the Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry, is ten times more efficient for the thermochemical process than biomass.

In October 2021, the world's first production facility for PtL fuels went into operation in Werlte, Lower Saxony.

The partners of the facility operated by the non-profit climate protection organization Atmosfair include Lufthansa, the industrial group Siemens, the energy supplier EWE and the start-up Ineratec.

Around 350 tons of fuel are to be produced here per year - unfortunately still a comparatively small amount, since around 600,000 tons per year are already required in Germany alone for domestic air traffic.

With 3500 tons per year, the PtL plant in Frankfurt's Industriepark Höchst should therefore produce a significantly larger amount.

The factory, which is also being built by the start-up Ineratec, is scheduled to start operations in 2023.

A plant is also planned in Hamburg, but it is not scheduled to start up until 2026.

A production volume of around 10,000 tons per year is already expected here.

In addition to the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the energy group Uniper, the energy technology group Siemens Energy and the chemical company Sasol are on board.

Low production volumes, high costs

The technologies for the production of synthetic fuels already exist.

But compared to classic kerosene, SAFs are still significantly more expensive and therefore not competitive.

The main reasons for this are the high electricity costs in Germany and the still far too low production volumes.

According to management consultant Kearney, the increase in the CO2 price in European emissions trading from the current 60 euros to 130 euros per tonne in 2030 will reduce the cost gap between synthetic SAF and conventional kerosene, but will not completely close it.

The state could help here.

In the "Green Deal" decided by the EU Commission, according to which the EU is to become climate-neutral by 2050, investments of one trillion euros are planned by 2030 alone.

According to Kearney's calculations, investments of 20 billion euros are necessary to make synthetic fuels competitive.

So that money would only make up 2 percent of the total deal.

PwC's economic advisors also calculated that the use of sustainable fuels in aircraft would not make flying excessively expensive.

The blending of SAFs is expected to increase airline fuel costs by up to 16 percent per tonne by 2038 compared to pure fossil kerosene, the study says.

If the additional costs for the synthetic kerosene were passed on to the passengers in full, the surcharge for a flight from Munich to New York would be around 36 euros.

In order to meet its climate goals, the federal government has placed a focus on SAF technology in its coalition agreement: It says: The government wants to "support research and the market ramp-up of synthetic and sustainable fuels for climate-neutral flying so that Germany can play a pioneering role in global competition."

In addition, the traffic light coalition has introduced clear targets: From 2026, at least 0.5 percent of aviation fuel must consist of PtL kerosene.

From 2030, the rate will increase to 2 percent.

However, this is only progressing in small steps, as a study by the International Energy Agency IEA shows.

Under current conditions, global annual consumption of synthetic fuels will only increase to 75 billion liters by 2040.

A large part of the energy will then still be generated from fossil kerosene.

Greater efforts are therefore required in Germany and the other major industrial nations to reduce emissions of the climate-damaging gas.

Higher targets will lead to higher demand from airlines, which in turn means greater investment security for producers.

And with the expansion of capacities, prices will also fall and become comparable to those for conventional kerosene.

So flying remains affordable - and at the same time becomes sustainable.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-07-18

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.