Sustainable Aviation Fuel at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

In Person or Zoom Presentation

In-Person

Campus

Daytona Beach

Status

Student

Student Year and Major

2028 Aeronautical Science

Presentation Description/Abstract

Aviation accounts for roughly 2% of global CO2 emissions, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is among the most immediately available ways to reduce them. SAF is usually discussed for airlines, but flight training fleets are an overlooked opportunity. Most training aircraft, including much of Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach fleet, burn 100LL avgas, which is not compatible with SAF. A growing share of trainers, however, are Jet-A diesels. Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach fleet includes 14 Diamond DA42-VI twins, which burn Jet-A and could use SAF blends for fuel. This project proposes a framework for evaluating whether Embry-Riddle’s DA42-VI fleet can transition to SAF blends, and it is intended to guide future research. Emissions impact would be estimated by multiplying annual fleet flight hours by fuel burn from the aircraft’s Pilot’s Information Manual, applying a standard Jet-A CO2 emission factor, and then applying a range of SAF lifecycle CO2 reductions based on the type of blend. Costs would be estimated using a past 12-month average of published Jet-A prices for Daytona Beach and published SAF price data, with a sensitivity range to account for fuel price volatility that has been present in the recent market. The framework for our presentation draws on Lufthansa’s European Flight Academy, which flew a DA42-VI on SAF at Bremen in 2023. From this experiment, we determine what data we need to consider with this change to SAF, while considering the differences in fleet size, utilization, and local SAF infrastructure. Through this poster, we aim to provide a framework that gives flight programs a method for identifying the feasibility of SAF’s in training fleets, especially Embry-Riddle, and we hope to encourage future research on this issue, as SAF’s are still very new to aviation.

Keywords

Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Emissions, Jet Fuel, Diamond Aircraft

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Sustainable Aviation Fuel at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Aviation accounts for roughly 2% of global CO2 emissions, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is among the most immediately available ways to reduce them. SAF is usually discussed for airlines, but flight training fleets are an overlooked opportunity. Most training aircraft, including much of Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach fleet, burn 100LL avgas, which is not compatible with SAF. A growing share of trainers, however, are Jet-A diesels. Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach fleet includes 14 Diamond DA42-VI twins, which burn Jet-A and could use SAF blends for fuel. This project proposes a framework for evaluating whether Embry-Riddle’s DA42-VI fleet can transition to SAF blends, and it is intended to guide future research. Emissions impact would be estimated by multiplying annual fleet flight hours by fuel burn from the aircraft’s Pilot’s Information Manual, applying a standard Jet-A CO2 emission factor, and then applying a range of SAF lifecycle CO2 reductions based on the type of blend. Costs would be estimated using a past 12-month average of published Jet-A prices for Daytona Beach and published SAF price data, with a sensitivity range to account for fuel price volatility that has been present in the recent market. The framework for our presentation draws on Lufthansa’s European Flight Academy, which flew a DA42-VI on SAF at Bremen in 2023. From this experiment, we determine what data we need to consider with this change to SAF, while considering the differences in fleet size, utilization, and local SAF infrastructure. Through this poster, we aim to provide a framework that gives flight programs a method for identifying the feasibility of SAF’s in training fleets, especially Embry-Riddle, and we hope to encourage future research on this issue, as SAF’s are still very new to aviation.