EVENDALE, Ohio — The airline industry is working towards a more sustainable future and some of that work is happening right here in the Tri-State.
GE Aerospace, which said it's the largest provider of aircraft engines, recently completed initial testing of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) on its tenth engine model.
This is part of the work the industry is doing to reach a goal set by the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration committed the industry in the U.S. to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The industry internationally has also embraced the goal.
"What we know about airlines is their contribution is increasing and that's why there's a tension to, let's try to address it now rather than later," said Chris Curran, Northern Kentucky University professor of biological sciences.
One way GE Aerospace is working to achieve this 2050 goal is through its testing of SAF.
"You can think about it like a biofuel, taking waste products from agriculture, taking plants, use cooking oil and things like that and turning it into fuel," said GE Aerospace Chief Engineer Chris Lorence. "As the plants take the carbon dioxide out of the air we're basically able to take that and then when we power the airplane, that carbon gets released with no net increase."
It's just one step GE Aerospace and other companies are taking to meet that 2050 goal.
According to a survey from GE Aerospace, 46% of aviation decision-makers think the industry can make this happen. The same survey found, on average, decision-makers think net zero carbon emissions can be met by 2055 instead.
You can read the full survey results here.
Lorence said there are several challenges.
"The pace at which we're all going to do this together is probably the biggest challenge," he said. "This is a worldwide standard that we need to get to so what we do here in the U.S. is great, but we really need the whole world to adopt Sustainable Aviation Fuel, for example."
He said there's more testing that needs to be done on SAF to ensure endurance.
"We want to run these for thousands of cycles to make sure there's no accumulation, no concerns about how things degrade over time so that they operate just like the engines that we have today on conventional fuel," he said.
Plus, an industry standard needs to be set before SAF can be the only fuel used on commercial flights. Lorence said that could be a year or more away.
This isn't the only technology GE Aerospace and other companies are working on the reach that 2050 goal. Lorence said GE Aerospace is also working on new engine designs to reduce emissions and testing electric engines for planes.
