Australian farmers could play a key role in moves to decarbonise the nation’s aviation industry, which also presents a huge economic opportunity. This article takes a deep dive into what sustainable aviation fuel is and how it could provide farmers with a new revenue stream
With increased pressures to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, the global aviation industry is looking towards sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for the future.
Mixed in small amounts with aviation fuel – known as kerosene – SAF can power an aircraft with fewer emissions produced than kerosene used on its own.
Airbus chief representative for Australia and the Pacific, Stephen Forshaw, says aircrafts are currently certified to fly with up to a 50 per cent blend of SAF.
“The beauty of SAF is that you can blend it with kerosene fuel, and it will power an aircraft, no matter if it’s a one per cent SAF blend or solely powered by SAF,” Forshaw says.
“For every litre of kerosene that is replaced with SAF, an 80 to 90 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved.”
Due to Australia’s isolation from most other countries, Forshaw says most of our flights are long-distance and has led to Australia being the eighth largest consumer of aviation fuel in the world.
Aviation’s contribution to the nation’s emissions is forecast to rise, Forshaw says, as efforts to transition the electricity generation to renewables deliver lower emissions from power generation.
Since SAF is made from agricultural waste and food products, such as wheat, sugarcane and used cooking oils, the production of this fuel would help decarbonise the aviation industry and presents a huge economic opportunity for Australian farmers.
Farm fuel
Although it is not currently produced in Australia, Forshaw insists that our agricultural industry would be perfect to fuel a SAF industry, and to potentially create a new revenue stream.
Waste products would be sold to SAF producers, who would then either extract fatty acids, or distil sugars from the waste, to create the lower carbon intensity fuel.
The Airbus chief representative estimates that 18,000 jobs could be created because of this, which would all be in regional and rural areas – benefiting farmers and the agricultural industry.
“This opportunity would essentially turn the farming sector’s waste into a new fuel source which could contribute $13 billion to Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) annually,” Forshaw says.
Still a very new technology, Forshaw estimates that less than one per cent of the world’s current aviation fuel is made as SAF.
This is because there is little available global quantity, which means SAF comes at a premium price. Due to this, Forshaw says airlines like Qantas use a one or two per cent blend when re-fuelling overseas.
With such a small percentage of SAF being used on commercial flights, Forshaw is concerned that it’s not going to be enough to make a meaningful impact in reducing emissions.
“If larger amounts of SAF aren’t adopted and no changes are made, aviation fuel will become one of the largest contributors to Australia’s emissions within the next two decades,” he says.
To combat this, Forshaw is adamant that SAF should be produced in Australia, due to the size of our agricultural industry and the large amounts of biomass already produced.
Seizing the opportunity
What Forshaw finds concerning about the SAF industry is not the fuel itself, but that Australia is falling behind in its development and production.
“There’s big SAF projects already happening in Europe, USA, Singapore and Japan,” Forshaw says.
“We’ve got a long way to catch up and if we do nothing, we’re going to face the consequences of missing a huge economic opportunity.”
Currently, large amounts of Australia’s agricultural waste are sold to Singapore, which Forshaw says is already embracing the SAF opportunity.
If Australia doesn’t also seize the opportunity, the SAF inputs will continue to be sold to other countries and the agricultural industry will lose the opportunity for new jobs and revenue.
“Singapore has built a one billion litre per year SAF refinery that is ready to start operating,” Forshaw says.
“They don’t have the biomass that we do, so if we don’t start producing SAF in Australia, they will keep importing our agricultural waste to produce their own.
“We risk losing the opportunity to faster-moving countries.”
As the domestic demand for SAF grows, it is critical for Australia to have its own supply, rather than importing it from other countries – which Australia exports to in the first place.
Aiming to kickstart this movement, Airbus and Qantas have entered a partnership where $US200 million is being invested into Australian companies looking to develop and produce SAF.
One of the companies that’s reaping the benefits is Jet Zero Australia.
Australian SAF refinery
Jet Zero is looking at developing a SAF refinery in far north Queensland, using a solution known as alcohol-to-jet (ATJ), which is ethanol created by sugars in agricultural food products.
The original company which developed the ATJ technology, US-based LanzaJet, has signed a licence and engineering agreement to allow Jet Zero to use their ATJ technology in Australia.
The north Queensland facility is forecasted to be three times the size of LanzaJet’s Freedom Pines facility in Georgia, USA.
“This presents an opportunity for farmers to sell their waste products into a supply chain that ultimately ends up as SAF,” Forshaw says.
“If they’re not getting the prices they want on their other products, then they have optionality by selling to SAF producers.”
In order for the fuel to be classified as sustainable, the inputs can’t be taken from the human food supply chain. He says this is because there is a fine line between solving the problem of decarbonisation and creating another one – reducing the food available to the global population.
“There will be all sorts of agricultural waste that are inedible and are being thrown out,” he says.
“This waste could have value for Australian farmers.”
Looking to the future, Forshaw hopes the aviation industry will rely on SAF without being blended with kerosene.
“If Australia doesn’t take up this opportunity, our rich and valuable commodities will be exported, allowing someone else to add the value, and we’ll have to re-import the finished product,” he says.
“I would like Australia to look at SAF and realise how critical it is to us in our ability to decarbonise, but also in providing economic opportunities for the agricultural industry.”