Avfuel has supplied its first full truckload delivery of sustainable alternative jet fuel (SAJF), a milestone for the fuel supplier’s ongoing SAJF initiatives.
Avfuel supplied the fuel in support of the Business Jets Fuel Green: A Step Toward Sustainability event at Van Nuys Airport (KVNY). As part of the event, operators flying in to Van Nuys’ Castle & Cooke Aviation and Signature Flight Support FBOs were able to purchase Avfuel’s new SAJF product, helping to reduce carbon emissions.
Keith Sawyer, Avfuel’s manager of alternative fuels, said, “Sustainable alternative jet fuel is the future for aviation — both in the commercial landscape and for business aviation. Avfuel is committed to the industry’s initiative to meet carbon neutrality goals and has worked diligently in the supply of and logistics for the environmentally friendly product.”
Avfuel supplied the SAJF in partnership with Gevo, which produces the concentrated SAJF product. Avfuel then blended the concentrated SAJF product with petroleum-based jet fuel and tested the fuel for quality and to ensure it met ASTM D1655 standards.
For every million gallons of SAJF Gevo produces, approximately 20,000,000 lb of animal feed and protein is produced and sold into the food chain.
Avfuel entered an agreement with Gevo in July 2018 to be its exclusive fuel supplier. The full load at the Van Nuys event is the first fruits of this partnership.
The largest hurdle to bringing SAJF to market for all of aviation continues to be the product’s availability. Recognizing this, Avfuel’s dedicated alternative fuels team has been working to procure reliable sources of the product and encourage producers to create more of it through formalized commitments with flight departments, an area in which the fuel supplier notes operators can assist the initiative. i
Sawyer added, “To make this product a reality in the entire aviation marketplace, we need to encourage demand in order to encourage supply. Just like any other commodity, there needs to be a sense of demand to foster production, even for such a worthwhile commodity like sustainable alternative jet fuel.”
