Virgin Flight100 marks another step in the long haul to sustainable aviation
The first trans-Atlantic flight using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel was made between London and New York yesterday by Britain’s Virgin Atlantic, bringing the industry another small step closer to sustainable aviation. Test flight VIR100, which did not carry paying passengers, took off from London’s Heathrow Airport at 11:49 am UK time (6:49 am ET and 5:19 pm in India) and landed at New York’s JFK airport at 2:05 pm ET, CNBC reported, citing Flightradar24. The flight, which the airline named Flight100, demonstrated that sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) was a safe drop-in replacement for the current fossil-fuel based jet fuel, compatible with today’s engines, airframes and fuel infrastructure, Virgin Atlantic said in a press release yesterday. Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic said in the press release, “Flight100 proves that Sustainable Aviation Fuel can be used as a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel. SAF is made from non-fossil-derived fuels, including biofuels derived from plant or animal waste, municipal waste and agricultural residues. That it can be a drop-in alternative means that it can be used with the existing commercial aircraft without any costly modifications to their engines and so on. Virgin’s Flight100 was made by a Boeing 787 widebody aircraft, flying on Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines, according to the press release. Simon Burr, Group Director of Engineering, Technology & Safety, at Rolls-Royce said: “Rolls-Royce has recently completed compatibility testing of 100 percent SAF on all our in-production civil aero engine types and this is further proof that there are no engine technology barriers to the use of 100 percent SAF.” SAF also produces emissions, but overall emissions from it are considered to be lower than emissions from fossil fuels. In 2021, a group of 60 companies from the airline, transport and cargo industries promised to ensure that 10 percent of all the jet fuel they used was SAF. And last year, the aviation industry set itself the target of reaching net zero status by 2050. SAF is made from waste products, and delivers CO2 lifecycle emissions savings of up to 70 percent, whilst performing like the traditional jet fuel it replaces, according to Virgin’s press release. Today, SAF represents less than 0.1 percent of global jet fuel volumes and fuel standards allow for only 50 percent SAF blend in commercial jet engines. CNBC notes that other airlines have used SAF on commercial flights, although generally on shorter journeys and in up-to-50 percent blends with regular fuel, which was previously the regulatory limit. Tuesday’s Virgin Atlantic flight was approved by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority earlier this month. The SAF used on Flight100 is a dual blend comprising 88 percent hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), supplied by AirBP and 12 percent synthetic aromatic kerosene, supplied by Virent, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation. The HEFA is made from waste fats while the SAK is made from plant sugars, with the remainder of plant proteins, oil and fibres continuing into the food chain. The kerosene is needed in 100 percent SAF blends to give the fuel the required aromatics for engine function In 2022 aviation accounted for 2 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions, having grown faster in recent decades than rail, road or shipping, the International Energy Agency notes in its assessment of the industry. As international travel demand recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic, aviation emissions in 2022 reached almost 800 million tonnes of CO2, about 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level. Earlier this year, the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences, published a report assessing a variety of alternative fuels, including biofuels, and found that availability and accessibility are big problems, Mongobay, a US-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform, notes in a July report.