With some in aviation questioning the industry’s ability to meet the European mandates being set on sustainable aviation fuel use (SAF), EASA has set up an SAF clearinghouse. Similar to the UK’s efforts in April to support the production and adoption of SAF, the EU version will “remove as many barriers as possible to support the EU [and] international deployment of SAFs as well as the approval of new pathways.”
Intended to streamline the regulatory processes, it will act as a one-stop shop for fuel producers, providing them with everything needed for efficient standard evaluation under ASTM D4054 (the standard for new SAF pathways), including partial funding for testing and report writing. According to EASA, SAF currently accounts for less than 0.05% of total EU aviation fuel use, and meeting the goals set in the announced mandates will require a variety of production pathways and new feedstocks.
“The demand for SAF will grow ever more to meet the goals set in the ReFuel EU Aviation Regulation and increasingly reduce the emissions from aviation,” said Maria Rueda, EASA’s director of strategy and safety management. “Via the EU SAF Clearing House, EASA wants to ensure that the fuel industry gets the support needed to succeed in developing SAF for aviation so that their innovation efforts are not in vain and more SAF is brought to the market.”