The primary transatlantic passenger flight powered by 100% sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) was accomplished on Tuesday 28 November by Virgin Atlantic, with the journey hailed as a milestone in assessing the viability of the putative inexperienced propellant.

Flight100’s journey from Heathrow to New York was undertaken with the approval of aviation authorities from the UK, Eire, Canada and the US, and was credited by Transport Secretary Mark Harper as displaying “how we will each decarbonise transport and allow passengers to maintain flying when and the place they need.”

SAF appears broadly seen as probably the most promising avenue for decarbonising long-haul aviation at current, however key issues stay: Notably, an enormous shortfall in its availability (with solely 0.1% of worldwide demand for aviation gasoline at the moment met by SAF).

Sir Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Atlantic, who was on-board, mentioned: “The world will all the time assume one thing can’t be completed, till you do it. The spirit of innovation is getting on the market and making an attempt to show that we will do issues higher for everybody’s profit.

Presently, plane are solely allowed to run on a 50:50 mix of SAF and standard jet gasoline, and check flights corresponding to this one intention to ascertain the viability of the upper mix, and to make the case to buyers for scaling-up manufacturing.

Flight100 concerned a Boeing 787 Dreamliner outfitted with two Rolls-Royce engines operating on SAF based mostly on “a novel twin mix”, combining round 88% HEFA (Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids), created from waste fat, and 12% SAK (Artificial Fragrant Kerosene), created from plant sugars. Plant proteins, oil and fibres additionally constituted a portion of the gasoline.

A earlier trial flight utilizing 100% SAF on a business airliner crossed the Mediterranean in April 2021, with each engines of an Airbus A350 operating on HEFA.

For fuels that rely upon waste supplies corresponding to animal fat (i.e., these deemed unfit for human consumption), corresponding to used on this newest flight, there are mentioned to be questions surrounding whether or not the stuff actually is sustainable.

Shai Weiss, Chief Govt Officer, Virgin Atlantic mentioned: “Flight100 proves that Sustainable Aviation Gas can be utilized as a secure, drop-in alternative for fossil-derived jet gasoline and it’s the one viable resolution for decarbonising lengthy haul aviation. It’s taken radical collaboration to get right here and we’re proud to have reached this essential milestone, however we have to push additional.

“There’s merely not sufficient SAF and it’s clear that so as to attain manufacturing at scale, we have to see considerably extra funding. It will solely occur when regulatory certainty and value help mechanisms, backed by Authorities, are in place. Flight100 proves that in the event you make it, we’ll fly it.”

A web zero aviation trade is a declared purpose of the sector, and quite a lot of completely different propellant applied sciences are potential candidates, with SAF seemingly probably the most promising, and others corresponding to hydrogen and electrical energy mentioned to be “many years away”, as Virgin Atlantic’s assertion put it. Throughout the class of SAF itself, approaches appear divided between biofuels and fuels of non-biological origin, notably efuels created utilizing sources corresponding to captured carbon, hydrogen and renewable vitality.

The Virgin Atlantic flight additionally aimed to evaluate the impression of the fuels on non-carbon emissions, corresponding to contrails and particulates, with the assistance of consortium companions ICF, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Imperial School London and College of Sheffield.