Can we really fuel planes with fat and sugar?

The question of whether we can fuel planes with fat and sugar is a complex one. Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin Atlantic, recently participated in a flight that traversed the Atlantic Ocean using only biofuel. This fuel, derived from plant sugars and waste fats, is known as Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF. A British politician celebrated the flight as a significant achievement for UK aviation, sharing a selfie with Branson on social media. The UK government partially funded the flight.

However, not everyone is convinced that this is the future of aviation. The production of biofuel requires a substantial amount of biomass, which can be sourced from a variety of materials such as plant matter, food waste, or algae. While biofuels do emit CO2 when burned, they are considered by some to be a sustainable option due to their renewability and the fact that biomass absorbs some CO2 from the atmosphere as it grows. The challenge lies in the sheer volume of biomass needed to power an industry as fuel-intensive as aviation. A recent academic paper estimated that to produce biofuels for commercial jets from sugar cane, you would need approximately 125 million hectares of land, equivalent to the combined surface area of the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Louisiana.

Even if we were to rely solely on waste sources of biomass, there would not be nearly enough to keep all the world's planes in the air, according to some experts. Currently, the airline industry accounts for about 3. 5% of greenhouse gas emissions, roughly equivalent to the total emissions of Japan, one of the world's highest emitters. Advocates of SAF argue that it could significantly reduce the environmental impact of flying. However, scaling up SAF production presents a formidable challenge. Despite the successful demonstration flight, it would be difficult to power more than one flight with 100% SAF at present. 'You just can't get hold of the damn stuff,' says David Lee, a professor of atmospheric science at Manchester Metropolitan University, who studies the impact of aviation on the climate.