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The Environmental Defense Fund (“EDF”) announced the release of a publication titled:
The High-Integrity Sustainable Aviation Fuels Handbook (“Handbook”)
The Handbook is authored by Pedro Piris-Cabezas.
EDF states that the Handbook provides guidance and approaches for companies, airlines, policymakers, and fuel producers to:
- Effectively advance the use of high-integrity sustainable aviation fuels (“SAF”)
- Support the decarbonization of flying
- Provide innovative solutions to the sector’s challenges in transitioning from fossil jet fuel to cleaner fuels
The Handbook describes SAF as:
. . . Aviation fuel derived from a renewable source or waste feedstock that:
- Has been certified by ASTM International as safe for use in the aircraft,
- Achieves significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional aviation fuel when evaluated on a life-cycle basis –the benefit is not from lower emissions from combustion but from emissions reductions achieved upstream in the fuel value chain; and
- Meets sustainability criteria.
Examples of SAF provided by the Handbook include:
- fuels of biogenic origin;
- fuels derived from hybrid feedstocks with both fossil and biogenic fractions such as municipal solid waste (MSW);
- green liquid hydrogen (no drop-in with existing engines);
- recycled-carbon-based bio-processed fuels from, e.g., off-gases of fossil origin from steelmaking; and
- electrofuels or e-fuels (also known as power-to-liquids or e-kerosene), including bio e-fuels using a CO2 source of biogenic origin, and Direct Air Capture (DAC) e-fuels with CO2 directly captured from the atmosphere.
Key sections of the Handbook include:
- What is Sustainable Aviation Fuel?
- Future Deployment of SAF
- Current SAF Policy Landscape
- Market Penetration and Barriers
- Lessons Learned to Safeguard Environmental Integrity of SAF Claims
- Requirements for SAF
- Avoiding Double Claiming
- Approaches for Governments to Avoid Double Claiming with CORSIA
- Recommended Guidance for SCS
- Recommended Guidance for Governments
- Case Study of SAF Premiums
A copy of the Handbook can be downloaded here.
