ALIGHT/WP2 | NISA

ALIGHT is an EU-funded Smart Airport project. It had its take off 2020, and was planned to finalize Nov 2024, 16 European partners participate. Copenhagen Airport is coordinating the project, and fellow airports from Rome, Vilnius and Warsaw are partners. The ALIGHT project has as its main goals to demonstrate:

The supply, integration and use of sustainable aviation fuel
The supply, integration, implementation and smart energy solutions

The ALIGHT project has 11 work packages, each dealing with specific defined tasks in the route forward to an emission free airport. NISA is leading work packages, WP2, dealing with SAF, future propellants and the sustainability aspects as focal points. Read more about The ALIGHT Project: www.alight-aviation.eu

ALIGHT participants

ALIGHT WP2 overview

WP2 Roadmap

WP2 Timeline

WP2 objectives

ALIGHT WP2 focuses on the production and supply of SAF from the feedstock sourcing to production methods/technologies and till the arrival the airport. The final outcome of the WP2 is to provide recommendations on the purchase of SAF to the end-users and/or the lighthouse airport, the fellow airports and EU and aviation sector in general.WP 2 should create the best possible conditions for the supply of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). This implies the following objectives

Identification, preparation and visualization of relevant documentation processes/structures in the SAF/fuel supply chain for subsequent reporting/accounting.
To create the optimal conditions for the supply of SAF to CPH, including future opportunities (e.g., future production facilities in proximity to CPH)
To act as a link between supplier, possibly suppliers, and end users.
To investigate two options for the necessary supply to the airport, taking into account product prices, delivery capacity, sustainability and continuity.
To prepare and quality check the SAF flow process
To develop input for best practice recommendations, together with fellow airports

WP2 main categories are: SAF supply and delivery, sustainability, price, regulation and compliance.

WP2 main tasks/categories are: Sustainability, price, Security and regulation and compliance.

ALIGHT WP 2

The use of SAF is a reality, though not large in quantities. Commercial flights have been carried out using SAF blend-in by more than 50 airlines and has thus demonstrated technical compliance with conventional jet fuel. More than 300.000 flights have flown on various amounts of blend-in SAF. However, there are large barriers to using SAF on a broad regular basis, including challenges of operation and logistics as well as commercial barriers such as pricing, availability, sustainability and policy settings. The volumes being produced are not enough to make a substantial impact on the environmental footprint from aviation activity. They cover only approx. 0,1% of global aviation fuel consumption and prices between 3-4 times conventional jet fuel have been observed in recent years. While today almost all sustainable fuel used in aviation is from biogenic sources, first and foremost HEFA from used cooking oils, there are other drop-in fuels under development, especially the so-called power-to-liquid (PtL) also named electrofuels. Other technologies expected to enter the market in 2023/25 are alcohol to jet and the Fischer-Tropsch technology using MSW as the main feedstock.It is a forecast that an amount equivalent to 1% of domestic aviation is covered by SAF in CPH in 2022/23 and that nationally produced SAF is available at Rome Airport. In 2025 2% in CPH is forecasted to be covered by SAF (approx. 50.000 m3).Fuel for aircraft have a strict approval process and with the first alternative fuel to the traditional fossil fuel being approved in 2011. The alternative fuels must be approved by the American society for testing and materials (ASTM) and have since 2011 only approved nine alternatives. Read more here.

Work package 2

A recent initiative to accommodate the high demand on SAF, several companies and organizations have developed book and claim systems, with more on the way.

Book and claim are an administrative system where the attributional ownership of a product is disconnected from the physical flow. This means that a company can procure a product and claim the environmental benefits, while the actual product is delivered physically elsewhere in the world.

The transnational nature of aviation can make it difficult to ensure SAF is fueled at specific aircrafts, since SAF might not be available at certain airports. Book and claim can support a continuous delivery between a procurer and supplier, despite logistical and geographical challenges. Furthermore, can the system reduce climate impact even further by potentially reducing transportation of SAF.

www.rsb.org/book-claim/

Definition and sustainability

Traditional jet fuels are a mix of hydrocarbons, including mostly normal paraffins, iso-paraffins, cycloparaffins and aromatics, produced from the kerosene fraction of crude oil. Drop-in bio-based fuels – synthetic fuels that can be used in conventional engines and fuel logistics – are liquid hydrocarbons that have the same properties as conventional aviation fuels.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) differentiates between aviation alternative fuels (AAF), obtained from sources other than petroleum, such as coal, natural gas, biomass, and hydrogenated fats and oils with the potential to be sustainably produced, and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which are AAF that meet sustainability criteria. There is no single internationally agreed definition of SAF.

Sustainability criteria for AAF have been defined under the carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation (CORSIA) – a market-based measure with the aim of limiting greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation to their 2020 levels. In the EU framework, the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) entered into force end of 2018 set sustainability requirements for biofuels. The revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) will be updated with the results of the Fit for 55.

With respect to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), under ICAO’s CORSIA, SAF should achieve life cycle emission reductions of at least 10 % compared to a fossil fuel baseline of 89 grams of CO2 equivalent per megajoule (g CO2e/MJ). According to RED II, in order to qualify biofuels as renewable energy sources, fuels have to achieve a 65 % greater reduction in emissions against a fossil fuel baseline of 94 g CO2e/MJ. (*based on EPRS, Nov. 2020).

100% SAF

Using 100% SAF is a new and exciting perspective for aviation. The aircraft manufacturers have completed flights with 100% SAF without any problems arising. But there are several challenges that must be overcome. For the time being, it is not possible to obtain enough SAF, approval of more than 50% blend-in is not yet in place, and when neat SAF is at some point used, a distinction must be made between SAF that contains aromatics and SAF that does not contain aromatics. A development that is very relevant when it comes to reduction measures to reduce the aircraft's Non-CO2 effects. The majority of the existing aircraft fleet must use fuel containing aromatics, but the manufacturers have announced that the components, sealings and gaskets that require aromatics or other similar properties will be replaced in future aircraft. Read more about the background, prerequisites, and perspectives regarding the use of 100% SAF.

See these two articles that elaborates a number of the topics:

Standard for 100 percent Drop-in SAF Likely Two Years Away

Sustainable aviation fuels are not all the same and regular commercial use of 100% SAF is more complex