A deal between Emirates and Shell Aviation for the supply of more than 300,000 gallons of mixed SAF for use at the airline’s international hub in Dubai (DXB) was announced today. Before the end of the year, the first SAF supply under the agreement is anticipated to start, marking the first time SAF will be supplied through the DXB airport fueling infrastructure.
The pact is the most recent development in Emirates’ environmental strategy, which is built around three key pillars: responsible consumption, emissions reduction, and the preservation of animals and habitats.
As part of the arrangement, Emirates will employ Avelia, one of the first SAF solutions backed by blockchain, to track SAF delivery and usage statistics. Shell Aviation and Accenture power Avelia, which also receives assistance from Energy Web and American Express Global Business Travel. Emirates will purchase the physical SAF and associated environmental attributes through Avelia to help reduce its Scope 1 related emissions, and Shell Corporate Travel will purchase the Scope 3 environmental attributes associated with the same physical SAF to reduce its related business travel. The agreement uses Avelia as an example of how book and claim solutions can allow corporates and airlines to both benefit from SAF’s environmental advantages.
“We are proud to work in partnership with Shell to make a SAF supply available for Emirates in Dubai for the first time, and to utilize the Avelia platform that provides business travelers with the flexibility to align their sustainability targets and minimize their environmental footprint when traveling,” said Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline. Since there are currently no SAF production facilities in the UAE, we are hoping that this relationship will continue to grow and eventually provide a steady supply of SAF in our hub. The aviation industry is crucial to the economy of Dubai and the entire United Arab Emirates, and we are eager to work with like-minded organizations and government bodies to find practical ways to expand the supply of SAF, a fuel that is currently in extremely short supply, in the aviation fuel supply chain and support Emirates’ efforts to cut emissions across our operations.
“Emirates and Shell have a long-standing commercial relationship, and it is fantastic to build on this to now work together on decarbonization,” said Chu Yong-Yi, Vice President of Shell Corporate Travel. The aviation sector in the United Arab Emirates has advanced because to this agreement. The first-ever supply of SAF at DXB is a significant accomplishment and a prime illustration of the crucial contributions that the various segments of the aviation value chain can make to advancing SAF. In order to further our goal of achieving net zero emissions, we believe that this will serve as a catalyst for additional SAF-related activity across the UAE’s aviation sector and in the surrounding area.
SAF is a safe, fully-certified drop-in fuel that may be used in place of conventional jet fuel at a ratio of up to 50% to provide aviation fuel with much lower lifecycle carbon emissions. It is also compatible with the current fleet of aircraft and airport infrastructure. In its purest form, SAF can cut lifecycle emissions from aviation fuel by as much as 80%.1
Emirates successfully performed the first demonstration flight in the area powered entirely by SAF earlier this year. On a Boeing 777 departing from Chicago, the airline’s first flight using SAF blended with jet fuel took occurred in 2017. The airline now flies flights from Paris, Lyon, and Oslo with blended SAF and has also elevated SAF for flights from Stockholm.
In order to increase the production and delivery of SAF, Emirates participates in a variety of industry and UAE government working groups as well as regular stakeholder consultations. The airline has been an active participant in the development of the UAE’s National Sustainable Aviation Fuel Roadmap, which was launched in January 2023 by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and GCAA. Last year, the airline worked with the UAE GCAA to contribute to the development of the UAE’s Power-to-Liquid (PtL) fuels roadmap, driven by the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and the World Economic Forum.
Source- Travel daily