News / Bristol airport
Bristol Airport sustainable flight claims ‘misleading’ say activists
Bristol Airport has delightedly announced it will be hosting flights powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
But activists remain unconvinced that SAF is a solution to the significant volume of carbon planes emit into the atmosphere.
The argument comes at a time when the Hydrogen in Aviation alliance (HIA), of which Bristol Airport is a member, has released a report outlining the activity required by UK government and industry to make decarbonised aviation a reality.
is needed now More than ever
Aviation contributes 8 per cent of the UK’s environment-damaging carbon emissions, with a projected increase to 25 per cent by 2050.
The government has set a mandate for all airlines, due to be officially introduced on January 1 2025, of at least 10% of jet fuel to be made from SAF by 2030.
While Jet2 announced they are ahead of the curve by using 1% SAF in ‘a number of’ their flights leaving from Bristol Airport ‘this year’, Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) has questioned how meaningful this is.
“The announcement that Jet2.com is using 1% of SAF blended with kerosene in the few planes it has departing from Bristol is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the amount of aviation fuel the company uses on a daily basis,” a BAAN spokesperson said.
“The aviation industry is in a tailspin over how to decarbonise flying. It is quick to promote SAF as more environmentally friendly when used in planes, but its claims are misleading. In reality, the tailpipe emissions from SAF’s are the same as kerosene.”
Last year Bristol Airport featured in a campaign calling for a ban on ‘high carbon’ advertising on council sites including flights, SUVs and red meat – photo: Adblock Bristol
Suggested SAF alternatives include used chip fat, biofuels, agricultural residues, ethanol, municipal waste and used tyres.
But a Royal Society report published in February this year concluded that all options for alternative fuel feedstocks for aviation were problematic to scale.
The use of ‘hydro-processed esters and fatty acids’ (HEFA) such as waste animal and chip fat is currently the most common and cheapest available method, which has the possibility of existing fossil-based refineries being retrofitted for production.
The first 100 per cent SAF-powered transatlantic flight, departing London Heathrow to much fanfare in November 2023, used HEFA-based fuel.
But the Royal Aeronautical Society said the already-limited supplies of animal fats, industrial grease and used cooking oil will not be able to keep up with the heavy demand, given 85 per cent of SAF facilities due to open next year will focus on this fuel type.
Synthetic e-fuel, produced from captured carbon combined with hydrogen, is thought to be the long-term key to sustainably-powered carbon-heavy transport too large to run on electric batteries such as planes, cargo ships and lorries.
David Fermin, Professor of Electrochemistry at Bristol University, said the choice is “either make hydrogen work in transport or we will never decarbonise that sector completely.”
But he suggested producing green hydrogen at scale is challenging due to its dependence on renewable energy sources: “Ultimately, as a society, we need to embrace green power generation at its full potential. Communities needs to decide whether they want either a 5MW solar farm or a 5MW onshore wind farm,” he said.
“If we don’t do this, then we are not going to have any green hydrogen at all and we can kiss goodbye to net zero.”
As well as significant upscaling of renewable energy sources, the widespread production of green hydrogen depends on major investment in infrastructure and research.
Just this month, a sustainable green hydrogen plant opened in Emerson Green in Bristol.
But experts agree there is a long way to go before sustainable hydrogen-fuelled flying becomes mainstream.
Johan Lundgren is CEO of Easyjet and chair of HIA, which alongside Bristol Airport also includes Rolls Royce, Airbus and others. He said the UK will need to make great strides, including securing ‘massive increases’ in hydrogen, to power the industry as it stands.
“The breakthoughs in hydrogen-powered technology happening across the UK are truly astonishing,” he said, “but these advances will be inconsequential if we fail to complement them with the appropriate skills, infrastructure, investment and regulation.”
Metro Mayor Dan Norris cut the ribbon at the new hydrogen plant in Emersons Green which is undertaking research on how to scale up and reduce the costs of green hydrogen production – photo: WECA
Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy agreed it will take a lot to get sustainable aviation off the ground.
“Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go to unlock the huge potential of a UK SAF industry,” he said.
“Without more supplies of UK SAF and greater support to incentivise its uptake and reduce its cost, our industry and UK holidaymakers are at a disadvantage.”
BAAN suggested airlines are getting desperate.
“It will be a monumental challenge for the industry to produce enough SAF to satisfy demand at a commercially viable price,” said their spokesperson.
“It is already heavily subsidised by the taxpayer which allows airlines to offer cheap flights, so any requests for further government handouts to subsidise the price of SAF should be strongly resisted.”
The UK’s independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) criticised the government’s Jet Zero strategy, which maps a plan to reach zero emission aviation by 2050. The CCC said it relies too heavily on emerging technology and fuels, and ignores the need to limit growth in demand for flights.
This applies particularly to private jets, where emissions per passenger have been found to be up to 14 times greater than those on a commercial flight, and 50 times more polluting than trains.
BAAN agreed: “Efforts to decarbonise the aviation industry are all too little, too late. The only guaranteed way to reduce carbon emissions from flying is to have fewer planes in our skies.”
Main photo: Stephen Clarke
This piece of independent journalism is supported by the Bristol24/7 public and business membership.
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