Sustainable aviation fuel: palm oil fraud and GHG emissions

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Virgin Atlantic airlines now uses ‘sustainable aviation fuel’ – a technology it claims will result in ‘Net Zero’ flights. However experts and researchers have lambasted this aviation and palm oil industry promotion as palm oil greenwashing and fraud. They cite evidence that using Sustainable Aviation Fuel or SAF undermines climate goals of keeping warming below 1.5°. Instead SAF is poised to flush gigatonnes of rainforest carbon into the sky exacerbating climate change.

Written by Ben Webster for Open Democracy, read original article. Republished under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

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Greenwashing promises that don’t stand up to reality

Virgin Atlantic and the UK government are accused of palm oil greenwashing over “the world’s first net zero transatlantic flight.”

Also, the Department for Transport stated that the flight “ushers in a new era of guilt-free flying” due to using so-called “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF).

Meanwhile, OpenDemocracy revealed concerns earlier this year that SAF production in the UK may be linked to palm oil fraud and deforestation.

“There are some incredible double standards at play here,” said Matt Finch, UK policy manager of green campaign group Transport & Environment.

The SAF market in the UK is largely dependent on used cooking oil from Asia. Where sellers are suspected of passing off unused palm oil as waste in order to attract lucrative credits. This is a particular problem for the environment, as producing palm oil drives deforestation.

Virgin airlines’ palm oil fraud debacle

Virgin last year bought more than 600,000 litres of “used” cooking oil from China and Indonesia to turn into SAF and mix with regular fuel for routine flights. Although it says the raw material for next week’s flight from London to New York will come purely from Europe and the US, the airline admitted it was still buying “feedstocks” from Asia for further SAF production this year.

“Some British airlines are palm oil greenwashing themselves by using used cooking oil made from Asian feedstocks,” said Finch.

“If airlines were genuinely trying to be sustainable, they would stop right now because of the huge risk of rogue palm oil getting into the SAF supply chain.”

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Net zero target

The aviation industry claims that SAF – which is almost all made from either biofuel crops or waste – could deliver around 65% of the reduction in emissions needed for airlines to reach net zero in 2050.

Under the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), the government allows used cooking oil to be used to make the fuel. It currently accounts for the vast majority of SAF declared in the UK, most of which comes from Asia.

In 2024 alone, British airlines bought over 26 million litres of used Asian cooking oil. In addition, 18 million litres from Malaysia, five million from China and two million from Indonesia.

Only about 15% of the used cooking oil purchased by airlines in 2023 has come from European sources. For example from the UK and the Netherlands.

Palm oil fraud is a massive risk with biofuel from Asia

Investigations suggest there is a high risk of fraud in the supply of biofuel from Asia. In particular virgin palm oil being passed off as used cooking oil.

Labelling virgin palm oil as used makes it more valuable. Because waste products earn double credits under the UK government’s rules for sustainable fuels.

Even genuine used cooking oil can indirectly cause deforestation. Because countries export waste oil they would otherwise have used domestically. Additionally they use virgin palm oil to meet their own local demand, according to T&E.

The Royal Societ, has also warned that an area at least half the size of the UK is needed to grow enough biofuel crops to meet UK aviation demand. Increased levels of recycling are also likely to mean less waste material is available for making the fuel.

Green fuel mandate

Commercial jet engines are currently allowed to burn a maximum of 50% SAF, which is blended with traditional kerosene jet fuel. But next week’s demonstration flight is expected to show that it is safe to use 100% SAF. It is being funded with a government grant of up to £1m.

It comes only weeks before the government is due to announce details about the so-called “SAF mandate”. Essentially, this will require at least 10% of jet fuel in the UK to come from “sustainable sources” by 2030.

The Department for Transport (DfT) will cap the amount of used cooking oil and animal fat that airlines can use. Because demand could divert the products away from efforts to decarbonise road transport.

The cap, though, could be as high as 250 million litres a year of waste fats and oils.

‘Undermining’ climate goals

Virgin and other UK airlines say their SAF has been certified by International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC). A scheme governed by a board that includes an executive from Air BP – one of Virgin’s SAF suppliers.

Palm oil fraud present in sustainable aviation fuel

ISCC has nonetheless taken some action over SAF mis-selling. It launched an investigation this year into “potentially fraudulent behaviour” involving biodiesel that had been declared as waste from Indonesia or Malaysia and then exported from China to Europe.

It also suspended the sustainability certification of three Chinese biofuel exporters and last month pledged to clamp down on fraud by implementing “a traceability database by the end of the year”.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson told openDemocracy: “With all SAF purchases, we require suppliers to comply with applicable sustainability standards. In respect of HEFA (Hydrogenated Esters and Fatty Acids) SAF, we ask suppliers to ensure that feedstocks do not contain palm oil or its derivatives.

“SAF is an emerging industry and we source feedstocks from regions around the world and ask that suppliers undertake robust due diligence to ensure there is no palm oil or derivatives.”

Flight reduction and zero emission aircrafts are solutions

However, the Aviation Environment Federation says the aviation industry’s enthusiasm for SAF is obscuring the urgent need for genuinely sustainable solutions to aviation emissions, including development of zero emission aircraft and an overall reduction in flying.

Even if every drop of used cooking oil available globally were refined into jet fuel, there would only be enough to power about one in every 40 flights, according to estimates by sustainable fuel consultancy Cerulogy.

The aviation industry says it is developing alternative sources of sustainable aviation fuel, including “non-edible industrial corn”, “forestry residues” and household waste.

Studies have found SAF does not cut emissions

But a study in August by Manchester Metropolitan University challenged the industry’s claims that sustainable aviation fuel can drastically cut emissions.

It said: “The scaling up of SAF to not only maintain but grow global aviation is problematic as it competes for land needed for nature-based carbon removal, clean energy that could more effectively decarbonise other sectors, and captured CO2 to be stored permanently. As such, sustainable aviation fuel production undermines global goals of limiting warming to 1.5°C.”

Cait Hewitt, policy director of the Aviation Environment Federation, said one flight using 100% SAF “will make no difference to the fact that only 2.6% of UK aviation fuel is anything other than kerosene. And globally, the figure is more like 0.1%.”

She said the industry and DfT were wrong to suggest that waste-based SAF could be scaled up sustainably.

Using rubbish to fuel a plane – not a sustainable long-term option

“It’s a nice idea to make fuel out of rubbish, which is what the UK government and others are pushing for, but producing more rubbish to turn into plane fuel is pretty obviously not a sustainable long-term option.”

She also said it was misleading to claim, as the DfT has, that SAF cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 70%.

Written by Ben Webster for Open Democracy, read original article. Republished under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

ENDS

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