Wednesday was a historic day for aviation, United Airlinesclaims.
40% off TNW Conference!
Then why Twitter is attacking United Airlines for greenwashing?
In fact, one engine was running with 100% SAF and the other with traditional jet fuel.
Fifty percent SAF is what the FAA currently allows.
Previously, we used a blended SAF/traditional jet fuel mix.
The goal is to scale that!
Yes and thats awesome but your original tweet uses misleading wording.
The marketing team beat out the factual team.#dobetter
?
?Paul Beaudry??
(@paul_beaudry)December 1, 2021
So basically you are lying when you say 100% sustainable?
(@Ruttemuf)December 3, 2021
2.
One wondered, What is sustainable fuel for planes?
Curious…
Its organic material that has been refined into fuel.
Some examples of this include garbage (like, straight off the truck into the refinery!
), managed forest waste and agricultural waste!
SAF refined from agricultural waste is what is being used on this flight!
Indeed, SAF focuses on this bang out of feedstock to make its lifecycle as green as possible.
What % GHG emission reductions are achieved by substituting SAF for conventional jet fuel?
I assume there are GHG emissions involved in the production of SAFs.
Michael Polanyi (@MichaelPolanyi)December 1, 2021
3.
SAF isnt easily scalable
Actually, thats the comment I would have posted on Twitter.
According toIATA, current volumes of SAF represent less than 1% of the total jet fuel demand.
And scaling up the volume is actually a very big challenge.
And thats for the EU alone.
I dont even want to imagine the numbers if the same study was applied to the US.
Besides the production challenges, theres one more important factor to consider: the elevated cost of SAF.
According toIHS Markit, SAF prices are aboutfive times higher than prices for conventional jet fuel.
So what does that mean for us, the customers?
Thats right: higher prices.
I suppose your intention is to charge the extra cost to your customers on ticket prices?
Or will it be subsidies, meaning extra taxes to pay for the people?
I believe the following tweet perfectly summarizes the situation and gives us some food for though.
I dont know who Timlagor is but they make an interesting point:
Read the fine print.
If youre a loyal customer then youre a big part of hte problem.
Aviation isnt sustainable and wont be sustainable any time soon.
With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.
