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Sustainable Aviation Fuels Status, Challenges and Prospects of Drop-In Liquid Fuels, Hydrogen and Electrification in Aviation

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Sustainable Aviation Fuels Status, Challenges and Prospects of Drop-In Liquid Fuels, Hydrogen and Electrification in Aviation https://doi.org/10.1595/205651320X15816756012040 Johnson Matthey Technol. Rev., 2020, 64, (3), 263–278 www.technology.matthey.com Sustainable Aviation Fuels Status, challenges and prospects of drop-in liquid fuels, hydrogen and electrification in aviation Ausilio Bauen* industry responsible for around 2% of all human- E4tech Ltd, 83 Victoria Street, London, SW1H induced carbon dioxide emissions (2), its estimated 0HW, UK; Centre for Environmental Policy, contribution to manmade climate change more Weeks Building, 16–18 Prince’s Gardens, than double this when non-CO2 impacts are taken Imperial College London, South Kensington, into account (3), and rapid growth expected over London, SW7 1NE, UK the next decades, the development of alternative aviation fuel is driven largely by concerns around Niccolò Bitossi, Lizzie German, climate change. Global aviation activity grew by Anisha Harris, Khangzhen Leow 140% between 2000 and 2019 (4) and passenger E4tech Ltd, 83 Victoria Street, London, SW1H numbers have been anticipated to continue to 0HW, UK grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.5% over the next two decades (5). *Email: [email protected] Policies are beginning to be put in place which aim to reduce GHG emissions from the aviation sector. In 2016 the International Civil Aviation Aviation fuel demand is expected to continue to Organization (ICAO) adopted the Carbon grow over the next decades and continue to rely Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International heavily on kerosene fuel for use in jet engines. Aviation (CORSIA) which aims to stabilise net CO2 While efficiency and operational improvements emissions from international civil aviation at 2020 are possible ways to reduce greenhouse gas levels (6). Whilst the remit of ICAO only covers (GHG) emissions, decarbonisation will need to international aviation, an increasing number heavily rely on low carbon kerosene drop-in of measures are being put in place by national alternatives. Currently, alternative fuels make up governments which cover domestic flights and a very small share of fuel used in aviation, but international flights. Flights within the European their commercialisation is making good progress. Union (EU) are included in the EU Emissions Hydrogen offers a longer-term alternative fuel Trading System (EU ETS) since 2012. Domestic option but requires aircraft design and fuelling aviation is included in New Zealand’s Emissions infrastructure changes. Electrification is emerging Trading Scheme and other states such as Canada as an option for providing propulsion in aircraft, and China have indicated that domestic aviation either in pure form in small aircraft or in hybrid will be brought within a national carbon pricing mode in larger aircraft. This paper reviews the scheme (7). status, challenges and prospects of alternative Even taking into account fuel efficiency fuels and electrification in aviation. improvements that can be achieved by more modern aircraft design and improved operational 1. Introduction measures, low-carbon fuels will be essential in order to meet targets for the decarbonisation Early research into alternative fuels for aviation of the sector (8). Several countries or regions was conducted following the fuel price increases in including California (9), the UK (10) and The the USA in the 1970s (1) driven by concern around Netherlands (11) have included aviation fuel costs and security of supply. Today, with the aviation within national support schemes for low carbon 263 © 2020 Johnson Matthey https://doi.org/10.1595/205651320X15816756012040 Johnson Matthey Technol. Rev., 2020, 64, (3) fuels on an opt-in basis. Norway has introduced Figure 2. The paper then explores the prospects blending mandates for alternative fuels in aviation, for future demand and supply of alternative drop- and a number of other countries including Sweden in liquid aviation fuels to 2030. and The Netherlands are considering similar policies (12). 2. Renewable Drop-in Kerosene In the past 20 years substantial progress Alternatives has been made in the production and use of alternative aviation fuels. In February 2008 a Renewable drop-in kerosene alternatives are Virgin Atlantic, UK, Boeing 747 (The Boeing synthetic liquid fuels produced from biogenic Company, USA) became the first aeroplane flown feedstocks or using renewable hydrogen and CO2 by a commercial airline on a blend of kerosene and (from waste streams or from the atmosphere) bio-jet fuel, and the first scheduled commercial which are functionally identical to fossil jet flights on bio-jet fuel began in 2011 (13). Today kerosene. There are several possible routes to more than 100,000 commercial flights have produce renewable drop-in kerosene based on been carried out using alternative liquid aviation different feedstocks and technology variants. fuel (13), and at the time of writing there were Table I summarises their technology status. six alternative fuel pathways certified by ASTM The costs of alternative fuels are substantially International, USA (14). Two additional ones higher today compared to fossil kerosene, with have been approved in 2020. costs ranging between two and five times the price One of the main challenges for low-carbon fuels of conventional jet fuel (global average price paid replacing fossil kerosene is matching the same at the refinery for aviation jet fuel in October 2019 fuel energy density. The energy consumption of an was about US$600 per million tonne). The lowest aircraft is proportional to its mass and that is why alternative fuel costs today are associated with the the fuel energy density and the weight of aircraft most commercially mature route consisting of the components are key factors. Bio-jet has almost large scale hydroprocessing of used cooking oils identical energy density to fossil kerosene, while (UCOs), animal fats and raw vegetable oils (16). hydrogen’s volumetric energy density is an order The GHG emissions savings from renewable of magnitude lower, and electrochemical batteries’ routes will generally be substantial, but vary, volumetric and mass energy densities are also an largely depending on the emissions associated order of magnitude lower (Figure 1). with producing the raw materials used in their This paper reviews the status of alternative fuel production. It is generally expected that savings options for the aviation sector, covering liquid fuels, will be between about 95% in the case of renewable hydrogen and electricity. A schematic overview of electricity based routes and 65% for routes based on all alternative fuel routes for aviation is provided in conventional crops, with savings from routes based 40 Diesel Fig. 1. Fat metabolism –1 35 Gasolene Comparison of various Kerosene 30 energy Butanol sources for 25 LPG aviation (15) Ethanol 20 LNG (cryogenic) 15 Methanol Liquid ammonia 10 LH2 (cryogenic) Zinc air battery Volumetric energy density, MJ l energy density, Volumetric 5 Li-ion battery Natural gas H2 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Mass energy density of fuels, MJ kg–1 264 © 2020 Johnson Matthey https://doi.org/10.1595/205651320X15816756012040 Johnson Matthey Technol. Rev., 2020, 64, (3) Feedstock Conversion 1 Energy vector 1 Conversion 2 Energy vector 2 Propulsion system Alcohol-to-jet Fermentation (AtJ-SPK) Sugar and starch Direct sugars to hydrocarbons crops (HFS-SIP) Aqueous phase reforming (APR) Gasification + FT synthesis Lignocellulosic (FT-SPK) biomass Drop-in jet fuel Pyrolysis Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) Vegetable oils, Hydroprocessing oils/fats animal fats (HEFA-SPK) Jet engine Power-to-liquid FT synthesis Water + CO2 source (PtL FT) Water Electrolysis Reforming + carbon capture and Hydrogen Fuel cell Natural gas storage Lignocel. biomass/ Gasification + carbon capture and coal storage Electricity Electric motor Electricity Electricity Battery Off-board On-board Fig. 2. Overview of alternative fuel routes for aviation Table I Summary of Technology Readiness Level and Scale of Production of Drop-in Jet Fuels Largest plant, Route Technology statusa kilotonne year–1 b Hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids- synthetic paraffinic kerosene (HEFA- Commercial (TRL 8) 1653 (planned) SPK) Alcohol-to-jet-SPK (AtJ-SPK) Demonstration (TRL 6–7) 82 (planned) Prototype (TRL 5, lignocellulosic sugars), Hydroprocessing of fermented sugars- pre-commercial (TRL 7, conventional 81 (operational) synthesised isoparaffins (HFS-SIP) sugars) Fischer-Tropsch-SPK (FT-SPK) Demonstration (TRL 6) 225 (planned) Pyrolysis Demonstration (TRL 6) 138 (planned)c Prototype (TRL 4–5, lignocellulosic sugars), Aqueous phase reforming (APR) demonstration (TRL 5–6, conventional 0.04 (operational)d sugars) Hydrothermal liquefaction Demonstration (TRL 5–6) 66 (planned) Power-to-liquid FT (PtL FT) Demonstration (TRL 5–6) 8 (planned)e a TRL = technology readiness level b Here ‘tonne’ refers to a generic tonne of liquid fuel and not specifically to jet fuel c Pyrolysis oil d Bio-crude e Blue-crude on biomass wastes somewhere in that range (17). that the same renewable electricity is not double- Electricity used to produce e-fuels is generally counted for other uses. In the case of fuels based supplied through the grid. The renewability of on energy crops, it will be important to consider this electricity needs to be guaranteed through their sustainability with regard to land use change accounting procedures which also need to assure impacts (18). 265 © 2020 Johnson Matthey https://doi.org/10.1595/205651320X15816756012040 Johnson Matthey Technol. Rev., 2020, 64, (3) 2.1 Synthetic
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