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Avolon joins Boeing and other partners to assess sustainable aviation fuel production in Ireland

Air­craft lessor Avolon is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Boe­ing, ORIX Avi­a­tion, SFS Ire­land and SkyN­RG, to con­duct a fea­si­bil­i­ty study into the pro­duc­tion of sus­tain­able avi­a­tion fuel (SAF) in Ire­land.

The study will be com­plet­ed in 2023 and is led by SFS Ire­land and SkyN­RG to iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for an investable com­mer­cial-scale SAF pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty. SAF is com­mer­cial fuel that reduces life­cy­cle emis­sions by up to 80%, cre­at­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er aviation’s reliance on fos­sil fuels, as well as its over­all emis­sions.

The Inter­na­tion­al Air Trans­port Asso­ci­a­tion (IATA) sees SAF as play­ing a key role in help­ing avi­a­tion reach its net zero tar­get by 2050, a tar­get set by mem­ber air­lines con­tribut­ing to around 65% of the reduced emis­sions need­ed.

Avolon CEO Andy Cronin said: “It is imper­a­tive that the avi­a­tion sec­tor deliv­ers on its promise to invest in reduc­ing its car­bon foot­print, and we have a shared ambi­tion of being at the fore­front of sus­tain­able inno­va­tion. The path to net zero requires a com­bi­na­tion of new tech­nol­o­gy air­craft and large-scale deploy­ment of SAF.”

Boe­ing envi­ron­men­tal vice pres­i­dent Sheila Remes com­ment­ed: “We will need a mas­sive increase in the amount of SAF if we are to reach our industry’s com­mit­ment to net zero car­bon emis­sions by 2050. Ireland’s growth in renew­able ener­gy makes it a prime loca­tion for SAF pro­duc­tion. Glob­al part­ner­ships like this enable us all to advo­cate for and scale SAF sup­ply.”

ORIX Avi­a­tion CEO James Meyler added: “Fur­ther devel­op­ment and large scale com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of SAF is a crit­i­cal mile­stone for the indus­try to reach togeth­er and this project will help deliv­er on that.”

SFS Ireland’s Dar­ren Car­ty con­tin­ued: “Avi­a­tion has a rich his­to­ry in Ire­land, embed­ded in over 50 years of inno­va­tion and lead­er­ship. As pilots, we under­stand and acknowl­edge the impor­tance of deliv­er­ing SAF to the mar­ket and see the Irish avi­a­tion indus­try as a cen­tral play­er in the mis­sion to decar­bonise air trans­port glob­al­ly.”

SkyN­RG CEO Philippe Lacamp con­clud­ed: “The avi­a­tion indus­try will rely on a num­ber of path­ways to meet its net-zero 2050 tar­gets and col­lab­o­ra­tion with glob­al experts to help dri­ve inno­va­tion in SAF is key to this being suc­cess­ful.

“Each new SAF research project brings us one step clos­er to iden­ti­fy­ing what pro­duc­tion path­ways and sus­tain­able feed­stocks are avail­able and help­ing eval­u­ate how best to assist the avi­a­tion indus­try in meet­ing man­dat­ed tar­gets.”

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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