In response to the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge issued last week by the U.S. government, the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) issued a statement applauding the government’s recognition of the role that SAF will play in helping the aviation industry meet its decarbonization ambitions. CAAFI has been one of the major drivers in furthering awareness about the use of sustainable fuels.
“SAF has been in development since 2006 and has been in commercial use since 2016, but SAF usage has remained very modest as a result of insufficiently coordinated efforts to address risk, cost competition with other renewable uses, and overall scale-up,” it noted.
Among the goals in the challenge issued by the SAF Interagency Working Group (SAF IWG), which includes the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, is meeting a goal of supplying sufficient SAF to meet 100 percent of aviation fuel demand by 2050.
CAAFI’s leadership has committed to working with the SAF IWG over the next six months to develop a roadmap and recommendations to meet that goal.
“CAAFI believes this will accelerate the ramp-up of SAF production from a very broad range of sustainable feedstocks and conversion processes through supported research, development, demonstration, and deployment efforts, as well as implementation of enabling policy initiatives,” the organization said.