Advancing Lower-Carbon Aviation TogetheR

A greenhouse gas emissions footprint, also informally referred to as a carbon footprint, is an estimation of all of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that result from daily activities, transactions, or operations. GHG emissions trap heat in the atmosphere, they include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

The GHG Protocol provides guidance on how corporations should quantify and report on emissions. The GHG Protocol distinguishes between three different categories of emissions:

• Scope 1 emissions are from sources that are directly owned or operated by a company. These include emissions from manufacturing goods, combustion of fuels by company-owned vehicles or aircrafts, fugitive emissions, etc.
• Scope 2 emissions are from energy produced elsewhere and purchased to directly operate a company’s business. These include emissions from the purchase of electricity, steam, heating, and cooling.
• Scope 3 emissions are from activities associated with a company’s operations that are not directly owned by the company. In many industries, Scope 3 emissions account for the largest portion of a company’s greenhouse gas footprint. These include emissions associated with a company’s supply chains, business travel, employee commuting, leased assets, transportation, distribution, etc.

Emission estimations follow the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Recommended Practice – RP 1726 to calculate the estimated greenhouse emissions associated with a passenger’s flying on a particular flight. The RP 1726 calculation methodology takes into account multiple parameters including aircraft fuel consumption, seat configuration, cabin class, aircraft type, and historical load factors from more than 400 airlines. Precision of the emissions calculation can vary based on the input data. You can learn more about these parameters and the calculation methodology here.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), also known as alternative jet fuel, is the industry term used to describe non-conventional jet fuels that are derived from renewable resources, known as feedstocks. Unlike traditional jet fuel, which is made from fossil fuels, SAF uses alternative feedstocks and is produced through various technologies, also known as processing pathways.

SAF is a drop-in fuel substitution, meaning it can be blended with conventional jet fuel in current aircraft engines without modifications. This substitution offers an immediate solution for helping to reduce lifecycle emissions from aviation. SAF has the potential to provide a lifecycle emissions reduction of up to 80% compared to the traditional jet fuel it replaces.

SAF generally meets several criteria:

1. Resource conservation: SAF must be produced in ways that minimize impacts on freshwater supplies, food crops, deforestation, and the wider environment.
2. Alternative materials: SAF must use materials other than crude oil. Examples of this can be fats, oils, and greases from cooking waste or meat production.
3. Lifecycle emissions reduction: SAF must demonstrate a net reduction in emissions through a lifecycle analysis (LCA).

While SAF represents less than 1% of global aviation fuel today, it is anticipated to play a meaningful role in decarbonizing aviation – particularly in the short and medium-term while frontier technologies like electric planes and hydrogen propulsion continue to mature to the point of commercial use.

Phillips 66 utilizes HEFA and co-processing SAF conversion technologies, SAF is produced using conversion technologies, which transform a range of feedstocks into fuel that can be used in airplanes. These conversion technologies are also referred to as processing pathways.

The most common processing pathway today is Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), which refines oils, waste, and fats into SAF using hydrogen in the process. In addition, SAF can be produced without extensive infrastructural changes via co-processing, which is the simultaneous processing of fuels using non-petroleum and petroleum feedstocks at existing fuel refineries.

As SAF development and adoption grows, feedstocks and production technologies will evolve. Future advancements could include eSAF, created by capturing atmospheric carbon and converting it into fuel.

Today, all commercially produced SAF on the market leverages biogenic feedstocks, also known as biomass. Biogenic feedstocks are renewable organic materials from plants and animals, such as used cooking oil, agricultural and forestry reidues.

In contrast, the production of conventional jet fuel requires the extraction of fossil fuel, resulting in a release of carbon that has been sequestered in the ground for millions of years. When burned, SAF and conventional jet fuel produce similar levels of emissions, but the emissions generated from SAF are already part of the carbon cycle (because they are made of biomass) and not extracted specifically for creating aviation fuel. This results in reduction of emissions when using SAF compared to conventional jet fuel when considered over the lifecycle of the fuel.

SAF makes up less than 1% of global jet fuel supply. Premiums help bridge the current economic gap of higher feedstock costs, validation audits, production, yield loss, distrubition, and fueling infrastructure.

Through the book and claim model, you can purchase SAF scope 3 environmental attributes that are associated with the use of physical SAF. This chain of custody model separates the physical fuel from its environmental benefit, and allows those environmental benefits – known as environmental attributes – to be tracked, purchased, and claimed without the buyer needing to be connected directly to the physical fuel supply chain.

The purchase of these environmental attributes provides a buyer with a claim to the climate benefit associated with a given volume of physical SAF, while simultaneously helping to cover the cost difference between SAF and conventional jet fuels. Through this process, you contribute to demonstrating demand for a more sustainable aviation sector and to helping to lower the current cost barrier of SAF.

Book & Claim custody chain ensures no double counting of the environmental attributes. Environmental attributes transferred through this program are intended for exclusive use by the end user and “retired” and cannot be claimed by other parties for the same SAF volume.

Insetting refers to the act of supporting emission reductions or removals within one’s own value chain. In contrast, carbon offsetting refers to supporting emissions reductions around the world regardless of their relation to an entities’ operations or activities. For example, if a corporation that has extensive emissions associated with business travel supports the advancement of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by purchasing SAF environmental attributes, this would be considered insetting.