Aviation decarbonization must go hand in hand with the petrochemical industry

Recently, the 41st Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) closed
.
At the meeting, aviation authorities adopted a number of constructive proposals
to support the aviation industry to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
However, from the current state of the aviation industry, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is not yet fully
developed.
The vision of net zero carbon emissions in aviation can only be achieved
by working deeply with the petrochemical industry.

Aviation accounts for 3% of global carbon emissions, but aviation has been one of
the most difficult forms of transport to achieve carbon reduction due to its stringent fuel requirements.
Currently, the focus of decarbonizing the aviation industry is mainly on SAF
.
The aviation industry has been looking to SAF to play a greater role
in decarbonizing aviation.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that 65% of the carbon reductions needed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will come from SAF
.
By 2050, at least 450 billion litres of sustainable aviation fuel per year will be needed to meet the aviation industry's fuel needs, up from 100 million litres
currently produced.

At the ICAO conference, aviation industry insiders called on countries to focus on increasing SAF capacity while reducing costs
.
The aviation industry expects SAF to achieve as much as green energy development and bridge the trillion-dollar cost gap
.

However, for the petrochemical industry, which is responsible for the production of SAF, the expansion of SAF production is still a big problem
.
At present, the petrochemical industry is stepping up the expansion of various SAFs, but the total supply of SAFs is still seriously insufficient
.
The reason is that the price of SAF is much higher than that of traditional aviation fuel, and the supply of raw materials kitchen waste oil and gutter oil is limited, resulting in its large-scale application being limited and market competitiveness is extremely weak
.
Based on the current technology, even if the global SAF production capacity continues to expand, it is expected that its production and demand growth will still be limited
in the next 10 years.
In addition, also due to technical bottlenecks, some types of SAF also have "greenwashing" behavior, there is a certain carbon cost in its production process, and it still needs to be mixed with a high proportion of traditional fuels, and the carbon footprint is not small
.
Therefore, the petrochemical industry is still worried
about SAF's larger expansion.
Delta Air Lines executives also admitted that from a financial point of view, the current SAF is economically viable, and refiners will not agree to invest more financial and material resources to produce such products
.

Clearly, if the aviation industry wants to achieve net-zero carbon emissions through SAF, it may need to work more closely with
the petrochemical industry.