New collaboration aims to accelerate the supply of sustainable aviation fuels

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Boeing and Zero Petroleum are to collaborate on testing and analysing of next generation of technologies to accelerate the supply of sustainable aviation fuels.

At the Dubai Airshow, Boeing and Zero signed an agreement to work together to advance sustainable aviation fuels. Attending the signing ceremony were (left to right) Brian Moran, Boeing vice president of Global Sustainability Policy & Partnerships, Paddy Lowe, CEO of Zero, Sheila Remes, Boeing vice president of Environmental Sustainability, Dr. Brendan Nelson, president of Boeing Global, and Oliver Christian, British Consul General to Dubai and HM Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Pakistan - Boeing

Zero’s technology produces sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) from air and water; the hydrocarbon fuel obtains carbon from direct air capture and green hydrogen from water electrolysis.

Under the agreement, Boeing will jointly establish a testing program for Zero’s SAF at Sheffield University’s Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) and its SAF research facility.

“SAF is our industry’s biggest lever in reducing emissions today and into the future, but we need more of it now to enable those reductions,” Sheila Remes, Boeing vice president of Environmental Sustainability said in a statement. “Working with innovators around the world such as Zero is crucial as we collaborate to develop new, sustainable pathways to produce and scale-up SAF.”

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With offices in the UK and US, Zero will be part of Boeing’s initiative to help fuel producers test, mature and scale SAF utilising its collaboration with the EIC and Boeing’s global SAF and aerospace expertise.

“The aviation industry needs to move quickly to meet upcoming mandates for de-fossilization and synthetic fuels provide the only fully scalable solution,” said Paddy Lowe, CEO of Zero. “We have already developed and tested our 100 per cent drop-in synthetic jet fuel and collaborating with Boeing will now enable us to accelerate the qualification process and put us on course for commercial delivery by 2026. Our collaboration with Boeing sets an industry precedent for the recognition and support for synthetic fuels in the global pivot to sustainable solutions.”

The agreement follows Boeing’s work to help scale SAF globally through industry partnerships and policy advocacy, investments in product compatibility work and Boeing’s own fuel use.

According to Boeing, SAF currently certified for use can reduce lifecycle CO2 up to 85 per cent and holds the greatest potential to reduce aviation’s emissions over the next 30 years, but key challenges to greater use of SAF are limited supply and high costs. Current use of SAF represents 0.1 per cent of global jet fuel demand.

SAF