Phillips 66 made a final investment decision Wednesday to move forward with Rodeo Renewed, the project to convert its San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, California, into one of the world’s largest renewable fuels facilities. The project, which recently received approval from Contra Costa County (earlier post), is expected to cost... Read more →

ZeroAvia, a company developing hydrogen-electric solutions for aviation, announced a collaboration with its strategic investor Shell, which will design and build two commercial-scale mobile refuelers for use at ZeroAvia’s research and development site in Hollister, California. The announcement follows recent positive predictions relating to the falling price trajectory of hydrogen... Read more →

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the land-use permit necessary to reconfigure the San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo to produce renewable fuels. (Earlier post.) Under a permitting review process overseen by County leaders and under authority of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the plant can now... Read more →

Following a three-month feasibility study, Aviation H2—an Australian-owned company seeking to achieve net-zero emissions in the aerospace sector through green hydrogen—has selected the use of liquid ammonia to turbofan combustion as the best route to carbon-free flight and will soon start modifying turbofan engines to test and prove the concept.... Read more →

Archer Aviation and United Airlines have formed a joint eVTOL advisory committee. The committee is a forum for United to share its expertise on maintenance and operational matters as Archer moves forward in its aircraft development process. The committee will advise on the development of systems and features intended to... Read more →

BASF has launched UpCore, a new service providing a cost-effective and sustainable technology upgrade from a standard ozone converter to an ozone-VOC (volatile organic compounds) converter for cleaner and healthier aircraft cabin air. UpCore replaces the catalyst core of an ozone-only converter with an ozone-VOC catalyst, a sustainable solution as... Read more →

Refuel Energy Inc. is planning to build a 3,000 barrels per day (bpd) renewable fuel plant (Refuel YYZ) in Southern Ontario. Refuel YYZ will produce renewable diesel (RD), sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and renewable hydrogen for the domestic market. The proposed facility would supply the aviation and terrestrial fuel needs... Read more →

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory have recently published research data demonstrating how cycloalkanes, when used in jet fuel, may reduce condensation trail formation and soot emissions as compared to current fuels. The team detailed its findings in an open-access paper published in Frontiers in Energy... Read more →

Mexico-based global construction materials company CEMEX is partnering with integrated chemicals and energy company Sasol ecoFT and renewable energy company ENERTRAG to combine CO2 with hydrogen to produce sustainable aviation fuel. This project is part of CEMEX’s Future in Action program to reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to a... Read more →

Researchers from the University of Dayton, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Natural Resources Canada have generated a lignin-based jet fuel (LJF) blend component composed of mostly C6–C18 mono-, di-, and tri-cycloalkanes. The product could complement five existing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) pathways (ASTM D7566 annexes) to enable a 100%... Read more →

TotalEnergies and ENEOS Corporation jointly conduct a feasibility study to assess the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in ENEOS Negishi Refinery in Yokohama, Japan. The companies have already started to conduct the study for feedstock procurement and production of SAF related to this project. The proposed unit, the capacity... Read more →

by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research Because of the war in Ukraine, many international flights of various airlines are currently affected by the closed airspaces. Specifically, they are forced to take longer routes that avoid these airspaces, increasing the total fuel consumed. Moreover, some of them also need to reduce... Read more →

Zenlabs Energy, a developer of advanced lithium-ion batteries (earlier post), announced that Energy Assurance, an independent third-party test laboratory, has validated the high specific energy and high-power of Zenlabs’ new large-format pouch cells for the electric aviation market. Energy Assurance tested Zenlabs’ 32 ampere hour (Ah) capacity pouch cells and... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) pathways for certain biofuels that are produced from canola/rapeseed oil (earlier post) and is providing an opportunity for comment on the Agency’s lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analysis of these pathways. With the approval, these fuel pathways... Read more →

Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and John Barrasso (R-WY) led their colleagues in introducing the Renewable Diesel and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Parity Act of 2022. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Steve Daines (R-MO). The bill would require the Department of Energy to... Read more →

The same propulsion technology that goes into rockets has made hypersonic speeds—Mach 5 and beyond, i.e., more than 5 times the speed of sound—possible since the 1950s. However, to make hypersonic flight more common and far less expensive than a rocket launch, engineers and scientists are working on advanced jet... Read more →

United Airlines Ventures (UAV) and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV) announced a collaboration with Houston-based biotech firm Cemvita Factory to commercialize the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) intended to be developed through a new process using carbon dioxide and synthetic microbes. UAV also announced an equity investment in Cemvita... Read more →

SpinLaunch, the developer of a ground-based, electric-powered, kinetic launch system, has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA. Through this partnership, SpinLaunch will develop, integrate, and fly a NASA payload on the company’s Suborbital Accelerator Launch System to provide valuable information to NASA for potential future commercial launch opportunities. SpinLaunch... Read more →

ZeroAvia, a developer of hydrogen-electric aviation, signed an MoU and announced a new partnership with the hydrogen fueling firm ZEV Station to develop green hydrogen refueling infrastructure for airports in California. The companies will work together on developing an initial regional airport project that represents sufficient scale to showcase how... Read more →

FlyZero is the UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) project aiming to realize zero-carbon emission commercial aviation by 2030. Funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the project FlyZero began in early 2021 as an intensive research project investigating zero-carbon emission commercial flight. The independent study brought together... Read more →

Aemetis signed an offtake agreement has been signed with oneworld Alliance airline member Finnair for 17.5 million gallons of blended sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be delivered over the 7-year term of the agreement. The value of the contract including incentives is approximately $70 million. Sustainable aviation fuel provides environmental... Read more →

Gevo has signed a “take-or-pay” agreement with Delta Air Lines, Inc. to supply 75 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) per year for seven years. Based on current assumptions, including those around future pricing of commodities and the future values of certain environmental benefits, Gevo estimates that the agreement... Read more →

DHL has confirmed new strategic collaborations with bp and Neste, to provide more than 800 million liters (211 million gallons US) of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to DHL Express within the next five years, with the new agreements forming one of the largest SAF deals in aviation to date. These... Read more →

Rolls-Royce has signed an agreement with Air bp that will reduce lifecycle carbon emissions for gas turbine tests carried out at three sites and support one of the organization’s key sustainability commitments. The agreement ensures that all of the aviation fuel supplied for engine testing at Rolls-Royce facilities in Derby... Read more →

Joby Aviation, a California-based company developing all-electric aircraft for commercial passenger service, announced the completion and subsequent approval of its first Systems Review and its first Compliance Review by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These reviews, completed at the end of last year, were recently granted approval by the FAA,... Read more →

NetJets Inc., the largest private aviation company in the world, and FlightSafety International, a leader in professional aviation training, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Lilium, makers of an all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) jet (earlier post), for a proposed strategic partnership. The arrangement would provide NetJets... Read more →

Researchers in China report the synthesis of jet-fuel range C10 and C15 polycyclic alkanes and aromatics with furfuryl alcohol and isoprene, two platform compounds which can be derived from lignocellulose. An open-access paper on their work appears in the RSC journal Green Chemistry. Cycloalkanes (especially polycycloalkanes) and aromatics—with their higher... Read more →

The Vertical Flight Society (VFS), a non-profit organization working to advance vertical flight, is holding the first public event in the United States on the use of hydrogen and fuel cells for aviation applications. The event, the 1st H2-Aero Symposium & Workshop, is being held 29-31 March 2022, in Long... Read more →

France-based global energy company TotalEnergies’ Normandy platform has successfully started production of sustainable aviation fuel1 (SAF). This new site complements the biojet fuel production capacities of La Mède biorefinery (Bouches-du-Rhône) and the Oudalle plant (Seine-Maritime). This move enables TotalEnergies to meet demand from its customers and respond to French legislation,... Read more →

Honeywell and Oriental Energy Company announced that a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facility with an annual output capacity of 1 million tons will be built in Maoming, Guangdong Province in China. The new facility will help meet a growing SAF demand, facilitate greenhouse gas emission reduction in aviation fuel... Read more →

bp and Honeywell have signed a licensing agreement for Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining technology. bp is undergoing pre-feed engineering for its proposed diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project in Western Australia. bp plans to convert hydroprocessing equipment at its former refinery site in Kwinana, Australia, to produce approximately 10,000 barrels... Read more →

CoFlow Jet, LLC, an engineering and technology company specializing in active flow control using coflow jet (CFJ) technology for aerospace applications, has entered a Joint Ownership Agreement (JOA) with NASA to commercialize the deflected slip-stream (DSS) technology enabled by co-flow jet flow control. Jointly developed between NASA and CoFlow Jet,... Read more →

SWISS will equip its entire Boeing long-haul fleet with fuel-saving AeroSHARK surface technology (earlier post). Starting in the middle of the year, a total of twelve Boeing 777-300ERs will gradually be fitted with the riblet films developed jointly by Lufthansa Technik and BASF. The significantly reduced frictional resistance resulting from... Read more →

bp has begun producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from used cooking oil in co-processing process with crude oil at its plant in Lingen, Germany. This is the first industrial production facility in Germany to use this process for SAF production based on biomass waste and residues. Fats, Oils and Greases... Read more →

Pratt & Whitney was selected by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to develop novel, high-efficiency hydrogen-fueled propulsion technology for commercial aviation, as part of DoE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) OPEN 2021 program (earlier post). The Hydrogen Steam-Injected, Inter‐Cooled Turbine Engine (HySIITE) project will use liquid hydrogen (LH2) combustion... Read more →

Airbus has signed a partnership agreement with CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines, to collaborate on a hydrogen demonstration program that will take flight around the middle of this decade. The program’s objective is to ground- and flight-test a direct combustion engine fueled by... Read more →

Embraer, Widerøe and Rolls-Royce are partnering to study conceptual zero-emission regional aircraft. The 12-month cooperation study—in the context of pre-competitive research and development—will address passenger requirements to stay connected in a post COVID-19 world, but do so sustainably, and seeks to accelerate the knowledge of the technologies necessary for this... Read more →

Shell has become the first supplier of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to customers in Singapore. Shell has also completed the upgrading of its facility in Singapore which will enable blending of SAF in Singapore. SAF is approved for use in aircraft operating today only when blended in a ratio of... Read more →

Neste and ITOCHU Corporation have expanded their partnership to increase the availability of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Japan. In the expanded partnership, ITOCHU acts as the branded distributor of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel in Japan making Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel available first at the two largest Japanese... Read more →

ANA Holdings and Joby Aviation are forming a partnership that will see Japan’s largest airline join with Joby to bring aerial ridesharing services to Japan. Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) also joined the partnership, with the intention of exploring opportunities such as ground-based transportation. Joby’s all-electric aircraft performing a flight test... Read more →

Virgin Group and chemical conversion technology company Agilyx (earlier post) are forming a strategic partnership to research and develop lower carbon fuel facilities to help address plastic pollution and the global transition to net zero. Virgin Group and Agilyx aim to reuse plastic waste to produce synthetic crude oil that... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $175 million for 68 research and development projects aimed at developing novel advanced energy technologies. Led by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the OPEN 2021 program prioritizes funding high-impact, high-risk technologies that support novel approaches. The selected projects—spanning 22 states and... Read more →

LanzaJet, a sustainable aviation fuel technology provider and producer, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Marquis Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Marquis SAF) to construct a 120 million gallons per year (mgpy) integrated sustainable fuels plant in the US using low-carbon intensity (CI) feedstocks to produce sustainable aviation fuel... Read more →

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has signed an agreement with Air France KLM Martinair Cargo (AFKLMP) for the purchase of 33 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The three-year cooperation represents one of the most significant SAF purchases in the... Read more →

Emerging Fuels Technology (EFT), a technology company focused on methods for producing synthetic fuels from feedstocks such as natural gas, flared gas, biogas, biomass, municipal solid waste, CO2 and more, introduced its Maxx Jet and Maxx Diesel proprietary methods, which employ a unique catalyst system made for EFT by Haldor... Read more →

A new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has found that although liquid-hydrogen- (LH2)-combustion aircraft do not perform as well as their jet fuel counterparts, they can still play an important role in meeting aviation’s 2050 climate goals. The study explores the potential performance characteristics, fuel-related costs... Read more →

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Helicopter Association International (HAI), National Air Transportation Association (NATA), and National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), on behalf of the Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel, urged the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide greater opportunities for the development of sustainable aviation fuel... Read more →

Four major European air carriers—Air France-KLM, easyJet, Ryanair and Deutsche Post DHL Group—have joined forces with non-governmental organizations such as Transport & Environment in a “Fueling Flight Initiative” meant to help advance a key draft EU law. The legislative proposal from the European Commission would spur aviation’s take-up of renewable... Read more →

Elroy Air, a company developing the first end-to-end autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerial cargo system, unveiled its pre-production Chaparral aircraft. The Chaparral can autonomously pick up 300-500 lbs of cargo and deliver it by air up to 300 miles, a capability that pushes beyond the limited payload capabilities... Read more →

The exploration of airborne transportation and advanced air mobility (AAM) is the focus of a new partnership between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Supernal—an advanced air mobility company from Hyundai Motor Group (earlier post). Supernal is developing electric, autonomous air vehicles capable of accommodating four to five passengers... Read more →