TagAlternative Fuels(40)

This March 2022 FAA presentation to the REDAC Energy & Environment Subcommittee provides an overview of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), highlighting both opportunities—such as drop-in compatibility with existing aircraft and infrastructure, and the potential to reduce lifecycle carbon emissions—and challenges including high production costs, limited incentives, and blend limits capped at 50%. The FAA's SAF program focuses on three areas: testing and accelerating fuel development, analyzing environmental and economic sustainability, and coordinating with public-private partnerships and international bodies like ICAO. While primarily focused on aviation decarbonization broadly, the program's emissions-reduction goals have indirect relevance to noise and environmental policy discussions at major airports like Sea-Tac.

This document from 350 Seattle argues that alternative aviation fuels (AAFs), often marketed as 'sustainable aviation fuels' or SAFs, are largely a greenwashing tactic by the aviation industry and cannot meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially as flight volumes continue to grow. It highlights that planes burning AAFs still emit carbon just like conventional jet fuel, and that scaling up AAF production raises serious equity concerns, including health impacts on low-income communities and people of color living near Sea-Tac Airport and under flight paths. 350 Seattle instead calls for an emissions cap on aviation, a halt to airport expansion, and investment in true zero-emission solutions.

The Burien Airport Committee held virtual meetings in July and August 2021 to discuss issues related to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and its surrounding community. Key topics included a presentation on the Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) covering 20 years of airport facility development, a briefing on Burien's Climate Action Plan, and an upcoming presentation on alternative jet fuels from Washington State University's ASCENT program. The committee also discussed zoning and land use near the airport and provided updates on the SEA Stakeholder Advisory Round Table (StART).

A 2021 seminar by DLR researcher Christiane Voigt examines how aviation contributes to climate change through CO2 emissions, contrail cirrus clouds, and NOx gases, with contrail cirrus identified as the largest single warming factor at 57.4 mW m⁻². The presentation outlines strategies to reduce aviation's climate footprint, including the use of alternative fuels, lean combustion technology, and contrail avoidance routing. Findings draw on data from recent aircraft measurement campaigns and observed emission reductions during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

This U.S. Department of Energy report, prepared by researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the University of Dayton, reviews the technical pathways for producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) — alternative fuels designed to reduce the environmental impact of commercial aviation. The report synthesizes findings from multiple expert workshops and evaluates various methods for converting renewable resources into jet fuel. It is intended to inform policymakers, fuel producers, and aviation stakeholders about viable routes toward cleaner air travel.

The FAA's Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) program is a public-private partnership aimed at reducing aircraft fuel burn, emissions, and noise through new engine and aircraft technologies and alternative jet fuels. Running in three phases from 2010 through 2025, the program sets increasingly ambitious targets, including up to a 75% reduction in NOx emissions and a 40% reduction in fuel burn by 2026. These advancements are relevant to communities near busy airports like Sea-Tac, as the program's noise reduction goals include a 25 dB cumulative reduction relative to Stage 5 standards.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's Environment and Sustainability Programs outline the airport's efforts to become the greenest, most energy-efficient airport in North America across four key areas: air quality and emissions reduction, green transportation, waste reduction and recycling, and water and wildlife management. Initiatives include providing pre-conditioned air and electricity at gates to cut aircraft engine greenhouse gas emissions by over 40,000 metric tons, transitioning vehicles to cleaner energy sources, and working toward recycling 60 percent of solid waste by 2020. The airport also actively manages 160 acres of wetland habitat, uses avian radar to protect wildlife, and has relocated more than 800 birds to reduce hazards to aircraft.