A Hydrogen Hiatus and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

The crossover of developing fuel cell technologies with the global desire to make the aviation sector more sustainable creates room in the market for hydrogen-fuelled planes as one approach to making air travel more sustainable. IDTechEx's reports, "Sustainable Future Aviation 2025-2045: Trends, Technologies, Forecasts", and "Sustainable Biofuels & E-Fuels Market 2025-2035: Technologies, Players, Forecasts", focus on the upcoming technologies surrounding the decarbonization of the aviation industry.

 

 

Airbus, one of the major manufacturers of aircraft operating within Europe, had a target to release a commercial aircraft that ran on hydrogen by the mid-2030s, pioneering the movement towards more sustainable air transportation. However, recent news has indicated that there will be a delay in this target due to an underestimation of the time required to install the required infrastructure and technology to begin hydrogen-fuelled aviation.

 

The project's new expected release is now sitting somewhere in the 2040s, highlighting the challenges surrounding such new technology, especially in such a large sector as the aviation industry. Despite the plan for this aircraft being a small drop in a much larger ocean of decarbonization goals, its launch would provide a pathway for other companies to follow.

 

 

IDTechEx's latest report, "Sustainable Future Aviation 2025-2045: Trends, Technologies, Forecasts", covers the potential for various approaches to sustainability within aviation, which includes hydrogen fuel cell alongside hydrogen combustion, battery electric planes, and more.

 

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is currently the main approach to sustainability within the sector while the wait for feasibly adopting hydrogen fuel cells is ongoing. IDTechEx's report, "Sustainable Biofuels & E-Fuels Market 2025-2035: Technologies, Players, Forecasts", looks in detail at SAF as being the next major trend in the decarbonization of this sector, with regulatory requirements in many regions for the implementation of certain SAF percentages alongside traditional jet fuel. Originating from waste cooking oils and vegetable fats rather than conventional oil sources, SAF's reduced carbon emissions from its production processes make it a more environmentally friendly approach to fuelling planes.

 

With hydrogen-fuelled planes being pushed further down the line, SAF appears to be the next best thing that is already taking action. Virgin was the first to fly a plane on 100% SAF from London Heathrow to New York JFK, highlighting the capabilities of SAF to work just as well as regular fuel, despite the costs of production, as detailed in IDTechEx's report, "Sustainable Biofuels & E-Fuels Market 2025-2035: Technologies, Players, Forecasts".

 

 

There is a debate surrounding the environmental costs of producing hydrogen, which in the short term may appear to oppose the incentives to benefit from it in the long term. As with any new technology requiring infrastructure and investment to take off, there is a trade-off between upfront costs and the benefits of long-term implementation, which can also be seen to be prevalent with SAF.

 

For more information, including detailed profiles of players operating towards the decarbonization of the aviation sector, visit IDTechEx's reports, "Sustainable Future Aviation 2025-2045: Trends, Technologies, Forecasts", and "Sustainable Biofuels & E-Fuels Market 2025-2035: Technologies, Players, Forecasts".

 

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