The High-Integrity Sustainable Aviation Fuels Handbook: Environmental Defense Fund Announces Publication

The Environmental Defense Fund (“EDF”) announced the release of a publication titled:

The High-Integrity Sustainable Aviation Fuels Handbook (“Handbook”)

The Handbook is authored by Pedro Piris-Cabezas.

EDF states that the Handbook provides guidance and approaches for companies, airlines, policymakers, and fuel producers to:

• Effectively advance the use of high-integrity sustainable aviation fuels (“SAF”)
• Support the decarbonization of flying
• Provide innovative solutions to the sector’s challenges in transitioning from fossil jet fuel to cleaner fuels

The Handbook describes SAF as:

. . . Aviation fuel derived from a renewable source or waste feedstock that:

1. Has been certified by ASTM International as safe for use in the aircraft,
2. Achieves significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional aviation fuel when evaluated on a life-cycle basis –the benefit is not from lower emissions from combustion but from emissions reductions achieved upstream in the fuel value chain; and
3. Meets sustainability criteria.

Examples of SAF provided by the Handbook include:

1. fuels of biogenic origin;
2. fuels derived from hybrid feedstocks with both fossil and biogenic fractions such as municipal solid waste (MSW);
3. green liquid hydrogen (no drop-in with existing engines);
4. recycled-carbon-based bio-processed fuels from, e.g., off-gases of fossil origin from steelmaking; and
5. electrofuels or e-fuels  (also known as power-to-liquids or e-kerosene), including bio e-fuels using a CO2 source of biogenic origin, and Direct Air Capture (DAC) e-fuels with CO2 directly captured from the atmosphere.

Key sections of the Handbook include:

• What is Sustainable Aviation Fuel?
• Future Deployment of SAF
• Current SAF Policy Landscape
• Market Penetration and Barriers
• Lessons Learned to Safeguard Environmental Integrity of SAF Claims
• Requirements for SAF
• Avoiding Double Claiming
• Approaches for Governments to Avoid Double Claiming with CORSIA
• Recommended Guidance for SCS
• Recommended Guidance for Governments
• Case Study of SAF Premiums

A copy of the Handbook can be downloaded here.