Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels: The ATA Commitment

Purpose

The members of the Air Transport Association of America (ATA) are dedicated to the development and deployment of safe, environmentally friendly, reliable and economically feasible alternatives to conventional petroleum-based jet fuel. We recognize that this effort presents significant technical and financing challenges. Further, we believe that we must proactively evaluate the commercial challenges associated with developing promising technologies that can meet our needs. We commit to work with future suppliers who potentially can integrate alternative fuels into our operations that are consistent with the principles on which we elaborate below.

To foster the development and deployment of alternative jet fuels that meet our objectives, ATA is a founding and principal member of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), a consortium of government agencies, airlines, manufacturers, airports, and current and prospective fuel suppliers that are coordinating work on the research and development of alternative jet fuels, including technical specifications, environmental aspects, production and distribution.

Criteria and Process

In addition to working within CAAFI toward our goals, as purchasers and end users of jet fuel the ATA members recognize that direct involvement with potential suppliers may be necessary to help bring safe, environmentally friendly, reliable and economically feasible jet fuel alternatives to market. Accordingly, we seek to engage potential suppliers who are capable of providing alternative aviation fuel that can reach our airports within the next few years, in particular, while also encouraging potential suppliers who may be developing alternatives that will be realized in the longer term.

To demonstrate proactive engagement with ATA and CAAFI, fuel suppliers are encouraged to participate in relevant CAAFI forums, make appropriate demonstrations of capability and engage in dialogue regarding the potential for delivery of alternative jet fuel supply. Prospective suppliers should successfully address the following:

1. Safety/Fuel Quality: Safety is the airlines’ number-one commitment. To ensure safety, commercial jet fuel must meet precise technical and operational specifications, and jet engines are designed to work with jet fuel having these specific characteristics. The fuel must meet regulatory and standards-making organization specifications including, but not limited to, ASTM D1655 and others referenced and required by the Federal Aviation Administration. See Appendix A for more information.
   
   To this end, we encourage all potential suppliers to work directly through CAAFI, whose collective expertise will help ensure that each supplier’s alternative jet fuel product will adhere to these exacting standards.
   
   
2. Environmental Benefit: ATA member airlines also are committed to reducing emissions associated with aviation. While air travel currently accounts for less than three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, we believe it is incumbent upon all segments of the transport sector to take voluntary measures to limit their impact on the environment. As combustion of traditional, petroleum-based jet fuel is a source of such emissions, we seek alternative fuel sources having a reduced emissions profile relative to traditional fuels.
   
   We encourage all potential suppliers to work directly through CAAFI to ensure that their alternative jet fuel will meet accepted criteria to be more environmentally friendly than traditional jet fuel, in particular resulting in a reduced emissions profile on a lifecycle basis, without compromising critical uses of relevant feedstocks.
   
   
3. Supply Reliability: A reliable supply of jet fuel is critical to providing dependable commercial air service. Increasing reliance upon oil supplies from unstable regions of the world, surging demand from developing economies and inadequate domestic refining capacity have left commercial aviation highly susceptible to disruptions. To be reliable, alternative jet fuels must satisfy technical and functional criteria that make them fungible with traditional, petroleum-based jet fuel and allow them to be commingled within (i.e., “dropped in” with) the existing national fuel transport, storage and logistics infrastructure, as well as within individual airport and airline systems.
   
   ATA will provide opportunities, directly and/or through CAAFI, to educate potential fuel suppliers on the aviation fuel supply process – including airline operations as well as distribution and logistics considerations – to further ensure the reliable delivery of alternative jet fuel.
   
   
4. Economic Feasibility: With fuel costs having surpassed labor costs for most air carriers, the economics of airline operations depend on affordable delivered fuel. It is our expectation that any successful alternative jet fuel will be economically feasible from the perspectives of both suppliers and purchasers.
   
   ATA seeks to work with potential suppliers to identify commercial terms and strategies that individual suppliers and purchasers might adopt to accelerate deployment. It is expected that alternative fuels showing promise of earlier deployment will receive priority. Relevant commercial terms could include consideration of short- and long-term purchasing contracts, direct investment and other innovative financing mechanisms to overcome financing challenges associated with bringing nontraditional jet fuels to market.

Contact

This initiative is being led by the ATA Energy Council and the ATA Environment Council. ATA invites all current and prospective fuel suppliers who believe that they may be able to develop alternative jet fuels meeting our needs to participate in the process described above, and we welcome business plans or other concrete demonstrations of interest and capability. Interested parties should contact ATA via e-mail at fuel@airlines.org.

Appendix A: Safety and Fuel-Quality Criteria

Any alternative jet fuel must satisfy the regulatory and standards-making organization specification requirements for jet fuel. The relevant current organization specification is ASTM International Designation D1655, titled “Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuels.”¹ At present, that specification recognizes certain alternative products on an individual basis, though initiatives are underway to incorporate universal alternative-fuel acceptance criteria within the specification. Even so, the possibility exists of creating an alternative fuel that will pass the required tests² yet fail to meet the needs of industry.

As a result, the following performance characteristics of alternative jet fuel, in addition to conformance with ASTM D1655 in its entirety, must be equivalent to those of conventional jet fuel at every stage of distribution, delivery, storage and utilization in the aircraft and its engines, including the auxiliary power units (APUs).

Additional equivalency requirements are:

• Lubricity
• Seal Swell
• Dielectric Constant
• Density
• Bulk Modulus
• Water Solubility
• Viscosity
• Thermal Conductivity
• Specific Heat
• Autoignition Temperature
• Hot Surface Ignition Temperature
• Toxicity
• Storage Stability

1. As stated in footnote 1 of that specification: “[it] is under the jurisdiction of ASTM Committee D02 on Petroleum Products and Lubricants and is the direct responsibility of Subcommittee D02.J0.01 on Jet Fuel Specifications.”
2. See, ASTM D1655, Table 1 “Detailed Requirements of Aviation Turbine Fuels.”