Aafrin Kidwai 
A new report from McKinsey and the World Economic Forum (WEF) has hailed India’s deployment of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), underlining that India is well-positioned to lead global efforts to produce clean fuels for aviation.
Of the 80-plus private- and public-sector organizations that make up the WEF’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow (CST) Coalition, around 20 are from India. The report also reminds that India generates large amounts of agricultural residues, used cooking oil, and other solid waste-feedstocks used to produce SAFs. In addition, India has access to low-cost renewable-energy sources as well as appropriate technology to scale-up the deployment of SAFs. This makes it well-positioned to have significant impact in the area. Through the CST initiative, the WEF has targeted transporting 100 million domestic passengers in India on SAF by 2030 on a 10% blend, which translates to 360,000 metric tons of SAF.
With reference to solid waste, gasification from the Fischer-Tropsch process of municipal solid bio- and plastic waste or agricultural residues is recommended.
The report acknowledges that price is a hurdle to overcome in the large-scale deployment of SAFs since it costs between 200 – 500 percent more than traditional jet fuels. The WEF hopes that costs could fall as production technologies mature, aided by government support and investment from the private sector.
Read the full report here.
Picture credit: Image by Bilal EL-Daou from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/photos/virgin-airline-sky-flight-air-2721333/
