A Gulfstream G550, the user of the sustainable fuel sold. (Gulfstream)
Gulfstream has made its first sale of sustainable alternative jet fuel (SAJF), which creates half the greenhouse gas emissions of standard petroleum-based fuel.
The company announced Friday that it sold 20,000 lbs. of G550 SAJF to what it is identifying as “a U.S.-based multinational corporation” from its Long Beach, California facility.
“This sale is a direct result of our efforts to increase the visibility and availability of sustainable alternative jet fuel for our customers,” said Mark Burns, Gulfstream Aerospace president. “We are committed to helping promote increased use of SAJF throughout the industry. We’ve been using the fuel since 2016 with our corporate, demonstration and Flight Test fleets, and we’re now proud to offer it to operators as well.”
Gulfstream’s SAJF is produced by World Energy, a refinery near the Long Beach facility. The company has used a 30/70 blend of low-carbon, drop-in SAJF and Jet-A in operations at its Savannah headquarters since 2012.
There has been a big push for sustainable jet fuel in business aviation. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) have jointly pledged to reduce emissions to the point that the industry is carbon-neutral by 2020, with a further goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2050 relative to 2005.
A number of other organizations are in a coalition with GAMA and IBAC, and Bombardier and Embraer join Gulfstream as manufacturers working to promote sustainable fuel use.
Aviation contributes around 2 percent of the CO2 emissions that people produce and 12 percent of transportation emissions, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and International Air Transport Association. Per GAMA, 2 percent of aviation’s contributions — 0.4 percent of the total — are from business aviation.
Speaking last month at GAMA’s state of the industry press conference, association President and CEO Pete Bunce said that “a lot of attention” is being paid to aviation, such as the Green New Deal that freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) proposed, which targets aviation specifically as an unnecessary harm to the environment.
“We have to work on this,” Bunce said at the GAMA event. “Increase demand and the supply chain will follow. We have to show we can meet our commitments.”