Story ID: 
SAFinity is the next step to NetZero
By: Martha Jercinovich
Caption: Rolls-Royce Business Aviation’s industry-leading SAFinity program has been developed to help all turbine aircraft operators implement a workable sustainability program and encourage Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) producers and FBOs to make sustainable fuels more affordable and attainable.
Word Count: 1293
In life and business, there are those who talk about a problem—and those who take steps to fix it. For nearly seven decades, Rolls-Royce Business Aviation has stood out as the latter.
When the global business aviation community made a commitment to achieve “NetZero'' carbon operations by 2050, Rolls-Royce Business Aviation did more than just join the effort, but taking a leadership role in proactively making that goal achievable.
“The use of SAF as a low-emission solution is essential to today’s decarbonisation of long-distance air travel and we actively support the ramp-up of its availability to the aviation industry,” explains Rolls-Royce’s Senior VP, Business Development - Business Aviation, Frank Moesta.
He adds: “We already tested all of our current business aviation and commercial products with 100-percent SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel). That means not just as a supplement for Jet-A, but as a drop-in replacement,. We’ve proven that all of our current engines are capable of operating safely on 100-percent SAF. That’s important.”
While replacing Jet-A with SAF is unquestionably the obvious and easiest way for operators of gas turbine-powered aircraft to take a significant step towards “NetZero,” there’s still hesitation within the industry to make the next move.
“We’re not just sitting back and saying we’ve done all we can do while we wait for others to catch up,” he continues. “Our SAFinity program is one more step we can take in fostering increased SAF production and usage in business aviation.”
SAFinity is a flexible and first of its kind program for business aviation customers, combining direct investment in increasing the use, production, and distribution of Sustainable Aviation Fuels with independently verified sustainability projects.
You can’t spell SAFinity without SAF
While every turbine business aircraft operator wants to do their part, the problem is there just isn’t enough SAF to meet the need. And what fuel stock there is is often hard to get. So, what comes first: operators buying more SAF or refiners making it more available?
“We basically developed SAFinity to help business aviation operators around the world to use more SAF easily while simultaneously pushing the worldwide production,” Moesta says. “SAFinity is a way for aircraft operators who fly out of airports that do not have SAF available to select the amount of SAF they would be buying even if it’s not being used in their aircraft.”
So how does Rolls-Royce’s SAFinity initiative work? As Moesta explains, an operator goes to the dedicated website, SAFinity.net, or direct to the aviation platform Yocova (Yocova.com), registers their aircraft – and does not even have to have Rolls-Royce engines – and selects the amount of SAF they would like to use. Then, they can track their carbon-neutral contribution.
“Right now, SAFinity is voluntary, but we have all the elements in place to enable it to be used for CO2 credits,” he continues. “We are working with various business aviation associations, including the Council on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (CoSAFA), to establish a reporting template that is acceptable for SAF book-and-claim transaction accounting and transparency.”
The primary driver of the SAFinity program is to help simplify the SAF ordering process, thus increasing a business aircraft operator’s willingness to use SAF. But as Moesta points out, the desire is no good if the need can’t be fulfilled.
To that end, appropriate data collected by SAFinity is shared with SAF producers and airport operators.
“We’re working to encourage major manufacturers to produce more SAF and for more airports and FBOs to offer it at their locations,” adds Rolls-Royce’s Head of External Communications for Business Aviation, Stefan Wriege. “Increasing the availability of SAF will help remove one of the biggest blocks to people using it.”
“We have a contract with Shell to increase SAF production as the demand increases,” he continues. “Now, it’s really up to our industry to drive that increase. We need operators to book SAF for more flying hours so that production distribution will increase.”
Yes, SAF is safe
While few will argue that SAF is a necessary next step in business aviation’s sustainability efforts, Moesta says that there is still a lot of misinformation regarding the validity of using non-fossil-based fuels in today’s turbine engines.
“One issue with the business aviation industry in general right now is the problem with gaining SAF acceptance with operators,” he explains. “The pick-up rates aren’t very high. People still have concerns about SAF and its effect on their aircraft.”
As mentioned earlier, Rolls-Royce Business Aviation has already certified all of their current-generation engines to operate on a 50/50 SAF/Jet-A blend, and all the engines have been tested on 100-percent SAF—with no issues.
“From an operational standpoint, SAF and Jet-A are the same thing. You don’t have any limitations on warranties or performance on our engines,” Wriege explains. “It’s about educating the users and making them comfortable. That’s when the demand will pick up, production will pick up, and costs will go down. That’s how the market works.”
“Operators must understand that SAF is the only way to achieve NetZero’s 2050 goal, especially with the longer-range missions we are flying on the aircraft we are powering today,” says Wriege. “The business aviation industry should be supporting whatever efforts they can, and that’s what SAFinity is built to do.”
To SAFinity and beyond…
While SAFinity is the current public face of Rolls-Royce Business Aviation’s role as a business aviation sustainability leader, the company’s NetZero commitment goes much deeper.
“There’s a large commitment throughout Rolls-Royce to be carbon-neutral by 2050 the latest. But that’s just one of our goals,” Moesta says. “It’s all about technology. Running engines on 100-percent SAF is just the first step for us. When you look at business aviation, gas turbine engines will be the technology of choice for the next 30 or 40 years. We don’t foresee electric or hydrogen-powered long-range aircraft for at least the next decades.”
“Running engines on hydrogen is proof of concept at this stage. It’s no technology that will be introduced into business aviation soon,” he continues. “It’s not all about the engine. The engine can run fine on hydrogen; it doesn’t care. But, the implementation of the infrastructure around hydrogen is very complex – the aircraft’s design, the airport’s design – it’s all going to be completely different.”
“It will take ages to get it all industrialized the way it needs to be,” Moesta says. “Our efforts now are very much concentrated on improving the efficiencies of the gas turbine engine and then looking at hybrids as technologies allow.”
“While we are working on electrification or hydrogen technologies as long-term alternatives to fossil fuels, the use of SAF as a low-emission solution is essential to today’s decarbonization of long-distance air travel. Right now, what we’re looking at are ways to make the technologies we have much more efficient, so you can assume the next generation of our turbine engine family will look different than today.”
With all that being said, what we do know for sure is that no matter what form the “next generation” of a long-range, business aircraft engine takes and whatever fuel it uses, those engines will be supported by the same high level of customer care and attention that has been the hallmark of Rolls-Royce Business Aviation since its beginning.