Some issues affecting potential stakeholder uptake of sustainable aviation fuel within Australia: a case study conducted at Darwin International Airport

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ABSTRACT

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) refers to a blended end product consisting of conventional Jet A-1 and aviation biofuel which conforms to applicable DEFSTAN 91-91 specifications for use in jet aircraft. SAF represents one of the most promising means by which the aviation industry could substantially reduce emissions, address fuel costs and price volatility and still continue to enjoy growth. To better understand the issues affecting SAF uptake within Australia, a case study was conducted at Darwin International Airport aimed at identifying all the relevant stakeholders (end users and fuel wholesalers), soliciting their views and positions on SAF uptake, and considering how the introduction of SAF might impact the supply and distribution infrastructure. The insights gained from this study will be broadly applicable to other monitored Australian airports since the on-airport jet fuel infrastructure, supply and distribution models that exist at Darwin are mirrored throughout Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable aviation fuel
• monitored Australian airports
• jet fuel infrastructure

Notes

1. Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Darwin, Perth and Sydney.

2. Commonly referred to as Jet A-1 in Australia, the UK and most other parts of the world, but Jet A in the US.

3. Any SAF product must seamlessly ‘drop-in’ to, and be interchangeable with, petroleum based products in existing supply, storage, distribution and aircraft systems - providing the supply chain is in agreement – to allow the use of a partially carbon-neutral fuel (AISAF Submission 2014, p.4).

4. In a similar manner, fuel storage and distribution at major airports in the US was also controlled by major oil companies; however, some significant changes have occurred there in the past 30 years. A number of airlines at different airports, e.g. Los Angeles International Airport (IATA code LAX), have formed their own consortia (e.g. LAXFUEL) which have purchased the oil company facilities on the airport and now share the fuel storage and distribution facilities for all member airlines’ use (Burns McDonnell 2016). Airlines belonging to such consortia now exercise much greater control over their own destiny. For example, if they decided in favour of SAF investment, they would be in a position to make it happen. However, it is unlikely that such a model will ever appear in Australia since there are only two major international airlines (Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia) based here.

5. Whilst there are various modifications (e.g. Laplace, adjusted Wald method, Wilson point estimator, etc.) that could be introduced to infer the actual response of a larger population from such a small set of data (Lewis and Sauro 2006), there was no need for any of these to be applied to the present survey since it covered the full and entire population.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicholas S. Bardell

Dr Nicholas Bardell has been involved with aerospace and aviation all his working life. He has held several academic appointments, and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Aviation at RMIT University. His industrial experience has been gained with well-known aerospace OEMs on a variety of civil and military aircraft engineering projects. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a Chartered Engineer.

Michael J. Ashton

Mr Michael Ashton has worked in the Aviation Engineering field since 2004 in both a technical and management capacity. He has held various senior supervisory positions within regional airline operations in Australia, and he is experienced in aircraft airworthiness and maintenance, airline operational management, logistic engineering and project management.