GE bets big on Sustainable Aviation

In September last year, agencies of the US government released a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge Roadmap, a comprehensive plan that outlines the government-wide strategy for scaling sustainable aviation fuels production across the U.S.

This is important to the conversation on energy transition because transport currently generates over 20 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The US roadmap which outlines actions that will spur technological innovation to produce SAF, reduce emissions, enable the United States to meet its domestic climate goals, adds to the many tools already in existence to reverse rising transport emissions such as policies, infrastructure investments, and new technologies.

“Transportation contributes more carbon emissions than any other sector, which means it must also be a central part of the solution to climate change, and that certainly includes aviation,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “We look forward to working with our partners in the public and private sectors on the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, which will lead to cleaner skies, continued economic growth, and good-paying jobs.”

U.S. commercial aviation currently consumes approximately 10 percent of all transportation energy and is a significant contributor of domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. SAF has the potential to deliver the performance of petroleum-based jet fuel, but with a fraction of its carbon footprint – emerging SAF pathways even have a net-negative GHG footprint. SAF can be made from renewable biomass and other resources, including winter oilseed crops, agricultural and forestry residues, and municipal solid waste streams.

Enough biomass can be collected sustainably each year in the United States to produce 50–60 billion gallons of low-carbon fuels. Growing, sourcing, and producing SAF from renewable and waste resources can also create new economic opportunities in agricultural and rural communities, improve the environment, and even boost aircraft performance.

The goals of the SAF challenge includes: achieving a minimum of a 50 percent reduction in life cycle GHG emissions compared to conventional fuel, produce three billion gallons of SAF per year by 2030 and supply sufficient SAF to meet 100 percent of aviation fuel demand by 2050.

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The roadmap is a collaboration among the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Federal Aviation Administration.

As parts of efforts to help decarbonise air travel, GE has already keyed into the objectives of the SAF including the production of 3 billion gallons by 2030 (which would be a 600-fold increase from 2021) and 35 billion gallons by 2050 — enough to meet the entire projected U.S. demand for aviation, and thus help dramatically reduce life-cycle carbon emissions associated with commercial flight.

All GE engines can operate on approved SAF today, the company said. Currently, all certified SAF is “drop-in” ready, meaning it is interchangeable with conventional Jet A and Jet A-1 fuel and requires no modifications to engines, airframes, and fuel infrastructure. It can be sourced from a wide array of plant-based materials, used cooking oil, municipal solid waste, alcohols and sugars, captured carbon, and other feedstocks, according to a note on its website.

GE Aerospace’s fuels expert Gurhan Andac, also speaking at the forum, in Pittsburg, where the US government announced the SAF initiative, applauded those goals and said that a ramp-up of this scale requires safety guardrails.

“There are no parking lots in the air; you cannot pull over and pop the hood,” he said. “So from that perspective, for the manufacturers and for us at GE, it’s extremely important to help ensure that the new fuel technologies introduced are safe.” Andac, who is GE Aerospace’s engineering technical leader for aviation fuels and additives, also chairs the ASTM International committee that maintains the global standard specification for synthetic aviation turbine fuels.

Andac said that GE’s advances in new, more fuel-efficient flight technologies, like hybrid electric aircraft engines and advanced engine core and combustion designs, “will not replace the need for SAF, and they will not be in service until the mid-’30s. SAF, on the other hand, is a fleet-wide and infrastructure-wide applicable solution that is available now, at least from a technology perspective.”

These fuels, as travelers have no doubt seen in their in-flight magazines, are already powering flights all over the world, at least in small percentages. And the potential to go much further is already here, the experts said.

Last October, an Etihad Airways flight using GE’s GEnx engines employed a fuel blend containing SAF among an array of existing solutions on a regularly scheduled long-haul flight from London to Abu Dhabi. That flight produced carbon emissions 72 percent below those of an equivalent flight two years earlier. Two months later, United Airlines operated the world’s first experimental flight with passengers using 100 percent SAF in one of its CFM LEAP-1B engines. (CFM International is a 50-50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines.) And in May, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flew two simultaneous GE-powered flights that used 39 percent SAF.

To reach the goals of the U.S. SAF Grand Challenge requires massive investment in supply chains and production facilities to make SAF available in the quantities needed for airlines. The federal SAF roadmap lays out six action areas that are needed to advance the cause: feedstock innovation, conversion technology innovation, building supply chains, policy and valuation analysis, enabling end use, and communicating progress and building support.

GE, which recently splintered to form three industry-leading, global public companies focused on aerospace, healthcare, and energy called GE HealthCare, GE Aerospace and GE Vernova, is making the investments that will help the move towards energy transition .

Engines produced by GE and its joint ventures are currently featured across 70 percent of global airline fleets, with a vast installed base and a strong backlog of more than $300 billion that will continue to drive customer retention and services revenue.

GE Aerospace has also become a leader in developing sustainable technologies, pushing the industry to new heights. In 2022 alone, it announced a partnership with Boeing on a hybrid electric demonstration program, successfully completed a world-first hybrid electric propulsion system test at altitude conditions, and ground-tested a Passport business jet engine on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel.

GE’s successful test of its Passport engine with sustainable fuel highlights the conglomerate’s commitment to innovation and providing sustainable solutions for its customers. GE jet turbines that operate on 100% sustainable fuel have the potential to increase sales even further as airlines look to improve operational efficiency and lower their carbon emissions.

With its positions in both the commercial aviation and military sectors and its leadership in sustainable technologies, GE Aerospace is an exceptional franchise that will continue to shape the future of flight.