This post is taken from the newsletter. “Human warmth”sent every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. Every week, journalist Nabil Wakim, host of the Chaleur Humaine podcast, answers questions from Internet users about the climate challenge. You can register for free by clicking here.
Question of the week
“Hello, my question refers to the options to replace fuel oil in airplanes. I understand that biofuels are not a very good idea, but could synthetic fuels be a good option? Can this replace oil sustainably? » (Question asked by Gabriel at chaud humaine@lemonde.fr)
My answer: No. We should not rely on biofuels or synthetic fuels to replace kerosene in airplanes; They may play a role in some flights, but they will not achieve our climate goals. (For a global view on flights and climate, I refer you to this episode of “Human Heat” Should we stop flying? with researcher Isabelle Laplace)
1. What are we talking about?
The term we use is SAF, for “sustainable aviation fuels,” often translated as “sustainable aviation fuels.” This brings together several realities: we generally think of biofuels, coming from agricultural production, something similar to the model used for automobiles. They can also be produced from used cooking oil. Another family includes synthetic fuels, sometimes called e-fuels, which are produced in factories, for example by mixing CO2 to hydrogen.
These SAFs currently represent less than 1% of global fuels in the aviation sector. Their main advantage is that they can now fuel airplanes by mixing them with kerosene. In this way we integrate a small percentage of these alternative fuels into the oil used in airplanes.
2. Why is this a problem?
Well, let’s be honest, there are a number of difficulties, and to think that these SAF will replace much of the oil in aircraft in 2050 is wishful thinking.
First problem: biofuel production is very small compared to needs. And to multiply it it would be necessary, for example, to use a lot of agricultural land, with the risk of competition for food, among other things. Especially since other sectors of the transition will have similar needs (for example, producing biogas). Without forgetting that this risks resulting in an acceleration of deforestation, which would be catastrophic in terms of carbon footprint.
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