Clinical impacts and solutions Sustainable business and solutions

Shifting to Next-Generation Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Join WRI as we bring together experts and industry leaders for an engaging conversation on what it will take to shift the airline industry to genuinely low-carbon fuels. In this session, WRI researchers will present their latest findings on the potential use of corn stover as a fuel stock for SAF in the American Midwest and panelists will discuss where other opportunities exist to grow next-generation sustainable aviation fuels.

Aviation is considered a hard-to-abate sector—one where reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is particularly challenging. Existing strategies to decarbonize aviation rely heavily on replacing fossil jet fuel with alternative aviation fuel, often called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). There is growing interest in producing SAF from agricultural residues, which can be a climate-friendly biomass feedstock option when harvested responsibly. Synthetic fuel made from hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide (known as electrofuel, or e-fuel) is another option to decrease net aviation emissions. These next-generation fuels stand in contrast to conventional biofuels made from food and feed crops, like corn and soy, which require large areas of arable land, raising concerns about their global impacts on food prices, deforestation, and GHG emissions. Yet, high costs, lack of infrastructure and insufficient policy support currently challenge the scale up of these fuels.