This summer travel season can permanently change the future of sustainable aviation fuel

At the end of last year, Vancouver Air Analyst Mark Miller bought a ticket to bring his four-member family to Rome this summer. During the Italian season, the Millers will search for the city ' s ancient sites, explore the Vatican, then dive to Sardinia and experience the spectacular sea cliffs, white sand beaches and ancient limestone caves.

Five months later, CBC News Commentator Miller saw with incredible confidence that Iran had closed an important waterway between the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, through which nearly 20 per cent of the world's oil supply passed.

This unprecedented closure has led to a sharp fall in global aviation fuel stocks and depleted strategic reserves in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Miller says, "The report from Europe says that by the end of June, fuel supplies could have been reduced, and we arrived there about that time." "The last thing we want to do is be trapped in Europe."

With the continuation of the war in Iran, supply shortages have spread to the United States. On Thursday, U.S. aviation spokesmen told U.S. Today that the company would suspend several domestic routes in August and September due to the increase in the price of aviation fuel.

Eventually, the Millers cancelled their trip, and millions of summer travellers were doing the same psychological calculations. As airlines cancel thousands of flights before potential fuel shortages, Miller and other analysts turn their attention to sustainable aviation fuel (commonly known as SAF), which can reduce emissions by up to 80 per cent, but at two to five times the price of conventional aviation fuel. The airlines currently using SAF include United Aviation, Air Dame, Air USA and Air Nationale.

According to Lauren Riley, Chief Sustainable Development Officer of the United States Airlines, “Today, the price of traditional aviation fuel appears to be twice as high as it used to be in the summer season.” “This makes SAF look financially more competitive. In fact, this is the closest to equality option we have ever seen. This is the first time in my career that we really have a dialogue on this.”

Prior to the blockade, the summer of 2026 would have been the backlash of commercial aviation following the new outbreak. Riley stated that the need for summer travel had never been so strong with the FIFA World Cup, the half-century celebrations in the United States and Harry Stills' “Together, Together” world tour.

As prices rise and demand rises, the airline industry hopes that SAF will help bridge this gap. SAF, which is made from renewable resources such as spent cooking oil and remaining fries and butter, can be used as an alternative to conventional jet fuel without changing aircraft design.

The World Energy Group of the United States began converting agricultural waste, fats, oils and oils into SAF in 2016 at its Paramount production facility, California, as the first commercial-scale producer of the fuel. “There is almost no difference between the process and the downstream of the hybrid process”, said Joseph Ran, Vice President of World Energy Corporation's Asset Optimization. "You just have to add an extra blend of SAF and fossil fuels."

Ran says this technology is simple. The problem is to create a reliable supply. The industry uses less than 1 per cent of the total global aviation fuel consumption due to bottlenecks such as scarcity of raw materials (materials), complex infrastructure and expensive production processes. The spokesperson for World Energy Corporation stated that the company had provided SAF to United American Airlines, Air France and Royal Netherlands Airlines, which had ended production last year “as part of an overall effort to better pool corporate resources”.

But the oil crisis this year highlighted the need for alternatives to aviation fuel. Scott Lewis, President of the World Net Zero Energy Services Group, stated: “Closure of the Strait is a very vivid example of overdependence on a single commodity. April, United MicrosoftA coalition of DSV and the multinational energy company Phillips 66 based in Houston formed to scale up production and release 11 million gallons of SAF.

Reilly states that agriculture in the United States is well placed to participate in the SAF industry: “Think about biofuels: soybeans, maize, ethanol, and all agricultural raw materials collected, whether waste or crops themselves, and then converted into jet fuels.”

Domestic production and domestic travel are increasing, at least in the short term. Eventually, the Millers set aside their trip to Rome, especially in view of the fact that the trip would depend on a number of airlines and planned a new holiday. "It's just a risk we can't afford, so we decided to go on vacation to North America," he said. Owing to the hurricane season in the Caribbean Sea, their family decided to leave the Caribbean Sea area and to live closer to their homes. The Okenagan Valley is a lakeside summer paradise for British Columbia golfers, wine lovers and rowers, 5 hours' drive from Vancouver and 1 hour's flight.

“We feel good about our decisions”, Miller said.