Into the history books
On 29 November a cargo flight took off whose fuel requirements were covered completely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), thus setting a first in the history of commercial aviation. The initiators hope the industry will react enthusiastically to the innovation.
Deutsche Bahn’s Inter-City Express trains (ICE) have already sported a green stripe down their side for a year now, proclaiming them to be ‘climate protectors’, because they are 100% powered by ecologically-produced energy. Now DB Schenker, the transport and logistics unit of the DB Group, has added an aviation notch to its successes by cooperating on a new project with Lufthansa Cargo. The partners organised a flight from Frankfurt to Shanghai and back, in which the Boeing B777F deployed was powered purely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Thorsten Meincke, DB Schenker’s board member for air and ocean freight, underlined the fact that this was no cheap marketing gimmick. Compensation schemes, propagated for years, are inadequate; and SAF is readily available – refined by innovative enterprises from Belgium, Norway and the USA and ready for use. For this flight the firm bought its SAF from the Finnish company Neste – 174 t of fuel made out of used cooking oil. Meincke conceded to the ITJ that “it is currently approximately three to seven times as expensive as conventional kerosine made from fossil fuels – but it is definitely a strong long-term alternative.”
A promising procedure
When sustainable aviation fuel is burned in jet engines, then only CO2 is emitted that has been extracted from the atmosphere, for example when plants grow. On top of this DB Schenker and Lufthansa Cargo also compensate, through a re-forestation project, for those emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that were created by the production of the biomass, its processing and the transport of the sustainable kerosine. These steps together ensure that the partners can realise a flight that is completely neutral in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
In the more distant future, non-plant-based regenerative fuels are also expected to become available. The best-known production process for such fuels is the so-called power-to-liquid concept (called ptl), which is based on regenerative electricity, water and CO2.
But the ptl option is currently still far in the future. Peter Gerber, the chairman of Lufthansa Cargo, said that this flight pointed the way forward to said future. “We’re working on increased research on and the deployment of SAF, so that there’ll be enough of the fuel available in future.” DB Schenker CEO Jochen Thewes added that “we also need customers who are prepared to take this path with us.”
Regularly in the new schedule
In the case we’re reporting on here, the firms Siemens Healthineers and Merck stepped in at short notice and paid the higher transport prices due. The airline and the forwarder had only begun their exchanges on environmental issues a few weeks earlier.
The partners expressly called on all politicians, shippers, logisticians and airfreight carriers to push forward to expand production as well as the requisite infrastructure. With the start of the summer schedule, DB Schenker and Lufthansa Cargo are set to offer shippers regular CO2-neutral airfreight options. Thewes said that “we’re looking forward to see who we get on board.”
