What New Indian sustainable jet fuel technology could cut aviation emissions by 80%

The world was up in flames just last month after delegates chose to use private jets as their preferred mode of transport to attend the COP27, ironically the world's most prominent climate conference. Nearly 400 planes allegedly landed in Egypt during the first week of November — an act that could produce six times more emissions than travel via commercial airplanes. Despite the lousy rep flying gets for generating excessive greenhouse emissions, it is necessary for development. Let's face it, unless we develop some Aquaman-like powers to ship containers over the ocean, the development will start worldwide. However, there is a solution to this, too: Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).SAF are biofuels made from waste materials and other sustainable feedstock. These help cut emissions by as much as 80% compared to traditional jet fuels — and this is just the beginning! SAF technology has also been evolving at breakneck speeds over the past few years. Most recently, researchers from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute have developed a unique type of SAF that will literally pull CO2 out of the air to add wind under the plane's wings. This fuel uses magnesium hydride, whose main minerals are much easier to source due to its abundance on Earth. In addition, this SAF enables long-range flights — something most SAF struggle with. The SAF revolution has begun in India as well. Honeywell, an Indian company, has managed to invent an ethanol-to-jet fuel processing technology that converts corn-based, sugar-based ethanol into SAF. The company claims this fuel will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80%, and its modular property can enable rapid installation to speed up the transition process even more. However, only about 0.01% of global jet fuel use has been replaced by SAF so far, which forms a significant energy transition bottleneck. India has taken many steps in this regard towards accelerating this transformation. For example, the International Air Transport Association — representing more than 83% of total air traffic — has estimated that SAF could account for up to 65% of total emission reductions by 2050. Considering aviation accounts for about 2.5% of global greenhouse emissions (and growing), according to the International Council on Clean Transportation, this is, no doubt, the right time to turn over a greener wing. The report describes the first scenario as the “Economic Transition Scenario” (ETS), where no new policy action has helped accelerate the current transition. In other words, this illustrates green energy technology to continue evolving and expanding at the same breakneck speed we’ve observed over the past decade, unaided by amplified climate policy action.
While this sounds like business as usual, the report outlines many crucial wins in the next few decades. By 2050, we can expect wind and solar power — two exemplary sources headlining the push towards green power generation and away from fossil fuels — to account for 75% of the world’s power generation. Additionally, the report projects that major polluters such as global coal, oil and gas use to peak and fall drastically over the next few decades, signaling our transition into the next phase of clean power generation.