European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and French oil company Totalenergies have signed a “strategic partnership” to jointly develop sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and enable the decarbonization of air transport, they announced in a joint press release on Wednesday. This partnership provides for “the supply of sustainable aviation fuels to Airbus by Totalenergies for more than half of its needs in Europe” and a “research and innovation program aimed at developing 100% sustainable fuels, in line with the design of current and future aircraft. .
This research program will also study “the impact of sustainable fuel composition on reducing CO2 emissions and non-CO2 effects such as contrails.”
Annual goal of one and a half million tons of SAF produced by 2030
Since 2016, Totalenergies has been supplying the SAF used by Airbus for its aircraft deliveries to Toulouse, the statement recalls. It also supplied the fuel used for the first SAF flights on Airbus aircraft, such as in May 2021, during the first long-haul flight powered by SAF, produced in France, on an A350 linking Paris and Montreal. “We are happy to form a strategic alliance with Airbus to help face together the challenge of decarbonizing the aviation sector,” said TotalEnergies boss Patrick Pouyanné, whose group aims to produce “1.5 million tons per year.” of SAF by 2030″.
Source: BFM TV
