India’s commercial aviation sector is now entering a period of burgeoning growth with domestic air travel reaching pre-COVID (2019) levels. Indian domestic carriers are also quickly transitioning to new generation jetliner families such as Airbus’ A320neo and Boeing’s 737 MAX. These aircraft are substantially more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly as compared to their predecessors. However, in the quest to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and the de-carbonization of the aviation sector, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) will play a vital role.
Produced from renewable sources such as agricultural waste, municipal solid waste, and forestry residues, CO₂ emissions can be reduced by as much as 65% with the use of SAF, over the fuel’s life cycle. SAF has already been recognized to have the most immediate and greatest potential to decarbonize aviation over the next two to three decades. Airbus and Boeing have already ensured that their jetliners are capable of flying with up to a 50% blend of SAF and both manufacturers have targeted the enabling of 100% SAF operating capability by 2030.
Airbus, which committed earlier this year to using 10% pure SAF in its internal commercial aircraft and helicopter internal operations, has also started offering up to 5% pure SAF free of charge to customers departing from the Toulouse and Hamburg delivery centres. IndiGo was the first airline to benefit from this offer, when its new A320neo took off from Toulouse in July.
Fuelling the Need
Indian carriers presently operate flights solely using Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF). In 2019, the year pre-COVID, Indian airlines consumed around 8 million tons of ATF and emitted approximately 20 million tons of GHGs. However, they have performed a few flights using SAF since then, but will have to accelerate its use on commercial flights over the next few years; if they are to meet their decarbonization objectives.
While Indian carriers have already committed to greater use of SAF in the coming years, the challenge remains its availability. It is also 300-500% more expensive (presently) compared to ATF. The price differential between the two fuels will need to brought down, as Indian domestic carriers already operate in a very high cost environment. For this to happen, greater production and availability of SAF is a must.
Present plans call for an 86.8 TMTPA plant to be built by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOICL) at Panipat for LanzaJet ATJ (Alcohol To Jet) Technology. IOICL also has an MoU with Pune-based Praj Industries to set up a plant for developing SAF fuels. A bio-ATF pilot plant is also expected to come up in Mangalore. It will be built by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) with CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum’s technology for using non edible oils and used cooking oil as feedstock.
If SAF is blended into ATF to the tune of 1%, Indian oil companies will need to provide an estimated 14 crore litres of SAF/annum. If 5% SAF is blended into ATF, then 70 crore litres of SAF will need to be produced annually. Speaking in May, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said India would require around 8 to 10 million tonnes of SAF annually by 2030, if Indian carriers completely transition to using a 50:50 blend of ATF and SAF.
The obvious benefit apart from reduced emissions will also be a reduction in India’s oil import bills. Puri stated that India has feedstock for potential production of 19-24 million tons of SAF per year. SAF production also has the potential to boost the agriculture sector as use of indigenous biological feedstock such as sugarcane molasses will provide additional income to farmers. More than five lakh farmers would benefit by supplying sugarcane as feedstock to meet the requirement to supply 14 crore litre of SAF/annum.
Clean Aviation
The Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) issued the Indian Standard for Bio-Jet ATF in January 2019 and India has also joined the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Assistance Capacity Building & Training for Sustainable Aviation Fuels Programme. All major Indian carriers have already completed demonstration flights using differing levels of SAF blends.
SpiceJet operated a demonstration flight from Dehradun to Delhi in August, 2018 with a 25% SAF blend which made use of biofuel produced by the Indian Institute of Petroleum from Jatropha seeds. SpiceJetoperated a De Havilland Canada Q400 regional transport aircraft for this flight using bio-fuel blended with ATF (in the ratio of 25:75) in one engine.
IndiGo undertook its first international ferry flight with SAF in February 2022, wherein it used a blend of 10% SAF with ATF. Vistara carried out a ferry flight from Seattle to Delhi in March 2023 using 30% blended SAF
Vistara is also the first Indian airline to make a commercial domestic flight on a wide-body aircraft using SAF. The domestic flight from Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), Delhi to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, used a blend of 17% SAF with 83% ATF, which resulted in the reduction of 5,000 kg of CO₂ emissions on this flight.
Another important milestone was achieved in May, when Air Asia India (now merged with Air India Express) operated India’s first commercial passenger flight using an indigenously produced SAF blend.This was the first domestic commercial passenger flight in which 1% SAF was blended with ATF as a demonstration. The SAF blended ATF was produced by Praj Industries using indigenous feedstock, supplied by IOCIL.
The global aviation industry presently accounts for approximately 3% of total global GHG emissions. However, with the rapid growth of air travel forecast in some of the most populous regions of the world, the aviation industry’s share of global GHG emissions could increase to 22% by 2050. It is clear then that the use of SAF must be encouraged by all relevant authorities in the Indian context, to ensure that the nation is able to meet its Net Zero obligations and for Indian carriers to meet their decarbonization goals.
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