Story ID: 514
Embraer Goes Full Throttle on Sustainability
By: Chad Trautvetter
Caption: Under its multifaceted sustainability plan, Embraer flew the four aircraft it is showing this week at the NBAA-BACE static display on sustainable fuel.
Word Count: 640
Under its recently announced multifaceted sustainability plan, Embraer flew the four aircraft it is showing this week at the NBAA-BACE static display on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or its equivalent using book-and-claim. In August, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer established a series of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets, ranging from carbon neutrality by 2040 to inclusivity and the launch of its zero-emission Eve eVTOL by 2026.

“We have an opportunity to reshape the future,” Embraer Executive Jets president and CEO Michael Amalfitano said during a media breakfast on Tuesday at NBAA-BACE. “Our vision is to reimagine mobility,” emphasizing the use of sustainability to achieve this effort.

To help reach the aviation industry's goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, Embraer (Booth 1974, Static A101) is developing products, services, and other sustainable technologies, including the use of electrification, hybrid, hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and other energy alternatives. The company further will offset residual emissions through efficiency projects, available alternative energy, or advancing technology.

Embraer has also collaborated with Avfuel and to bring Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel to Melbourne Orlando (Florida) International Airport (KMLB). Avfuel delivered the fuel to Sheltair Melbourne for storage and handling and Embraer Executive Jets is using it for demo flights.

An initial 8,000-gallon delivery of a 30 percent SAF blend occurred in mid-July, and a second similar load was delivered earlier this month.

AIN was invited to fly on the static display Phenom 300E from KMLB to Las Vegas Henderson Executive Airport (KHND) to demonstrate the benefits of SAF. Before the twinjet left KMLB for the show on Saturday, it was fueled with 7,000 pounds of the SAF blend at KMLB. According to Embraer, the SAF used was sourced from animal meat waste. The Phenom, registered as N720EE, burned 2,800 pounds on the first leg to Easterwood Field Airport (KCLL) in College Station, Texas.

Since SAF was unavailable at this airport, Embraer arranged to use Avfuel’s new book-and-claim program—making it one of the fuel provider’s first such customers. Under book-and-claim, N720EE received 3,000 pounds of jet-A but another Avfuel-branded FBO with an available SAF supply will pump the biofuel blend into an aircraft ordering jet-A. However, Embraer got to claim the SAF credits, meaning the entire flight was conducted using SAF.

Including the leg from KCLL to KHND, the jet burned a total of 6,115 pounds of fuel from Embraer Executive Jets’ Melbourne headquarters to the BACE static display host airport. Burning traditional jet-A on this route, that would equate to 7.03 tonnes of CO2 emissions. But the 30 percent SAF blend used reduced that by nearly one quarter, to 5.34 tonnes.

Overall, Embraer has set targets of a 50 percent reduction in net carbon emissions by 2040 from the 2018 baseline, 100 percent energy from renewable sources by 2030, carbon-neutral growth from 2022 with 2021 as the baseline, and the use of SAF this year.

To reach net-zero aviation emissions by 2050, Embraer also is exploring the development of electric and other technologies, including eVTOLs, but also plans to work with suppliers to make aircraft compatible with the use of 100 percent SAF. This includes working to expand the global SAF production scale.

On the technology front, the company has flown an all-electric demonstrator based on the EMB-203 Ipanema in partnership with WEG and EDP, two of the largest electric mobility solutions providers in Brazil, Embraer said. It will conduct tests with this electric aircraft until 2023, after which it will fit the testbed with a hydrogen fuel cell to evaluate this technology starting in 2025.

For its flagship Praetor 600, the company is developing the Praeterra cabin design concept. Under this, cabin materials would be sourced sustainably and developed in a way that allows them to have a second life once they're no longer required inside the aircraft.