American aerospace giant Boeing has announced that it is to buy 35.6-million litres of blended sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), for use by its US commercial operations this year. This is its biggest annual SAF purchase to date, and is more than 60% greater than the amount it bought last year. This will help reduce the company’s carbon emissions.

“As our focus remains on safety and quality, sustainability continues to be a priority,” assured Boeing VP environmental sustainability Ryan Faucett. “[SAF] is essential to decarbonise aviation. About 20% of our fuel usage is a SAF blend, and we continue to increase our use of this fuel to encourage growth in the SAF industry. We are also working to make SAF more available and affordable to our commercial airline customers through collaboration, investment, research and policy development.”

SAF offers the greatest potential, over the next 30 years, to reduce the commercial aviation industry’s carbon emissions. Unblended, that is, 100%, SAF can reduce aviation carbon emissions by up to 85%, over the fuel’s life cycle. As unblended SAF has not yet been approved for commercial use by regulators, Boeing has to purchase a SAF/conventional jet fuel blend. The blend being acquired is 30% SAF, 70% jet fuel.

The feedstocks for the SAF are wastes such as fats, oils and greases. The SAF will be produced by Neste and supplied via EPIC Fuels, Avfuel and World Fuel Services.

Of the SAF being bought, just over 15-million litres will be supplied to Boeing. The remaining 20.4-million will be supplied to airports in the Pacific Northwest region of the US, for use by airlines and other carriers.

The SAF deliveries to airports will allow Boeing to buy carbon dioxide emissions reductions, under a process called ‘book-and-claim’. “Book-and-claim is when a company purchases SAF certificates to displace conventional jet fuel,” explained Boeing.