Alaska Airlines announced its partnership with Microsoft and Twelve as they will work on sustainable aviation fuels together. Together the innovators at Twelve and finding the impact of Microsoft’s business travel. They are going to advance sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).
As an aviation company, it is set to have ambitious goals with a long-term target of zero carbon emissions by 2040. As they are looking for solutions and innovation in the sector, they partner with two other companies in tech and innovation. Twelve was recently named as one of the Fast Company’s Most innovative companies, thus aligning with Alaska Airlines’ goals. Together they will work to bring its’s E-Jet into commercial use. The E-Jet is a low-carbon jet fuel produced from recaptured CO2, renewable energy, and water.
Furthermore, the aviation company will also work on using its aircraft powered by jets. With its partnership with Microsoft, the company is testing and focused on reducing the climate impact of some of the fuels on Microsoft’s business travel with the airlines. Furthermore, looking into what exactly is SAF, it is captured methane from agriculture, landfills, and other such areas, unlike regular fossil fuels.
SAF
SAF provides the greatest opportunity to make a step-level change in the climate impact of aviation within the next couple of decades. It is a safe, certified fuel that meets all jet fuel standards to reduce carbon emissions by as much as 80% on a lifecycle basis. It is a “drop-in fuel” meaning it can be incorporated into existing jet fuel transportation and storage. Like at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), where blended fuel travels through a pipeline to airports to be used on aircraft.
Sustainable Aviation fuel is a core part of Alaska’s five-part pathway to net zero by 2040. Since 2010, we have worked with various public and private partners to advance policies needed to jumpstart the nascent SAF market and create new offtake agreements that cultivate partnerships to accelerate market development. Back in 2011, they were the first domestic carrier to fly multiple scheduled routes powered by a SAF blend, and as mentioned, we are using blended SAF regularly in SFO. Alaska was also a founding member of the Aviators Group of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Buyers Alliance, announced at COP26, bringing an operator’s perspective to collaborations driving demand and supply. Scaling SAF and making it available at a commercially viable cost and scale requires change on several fronts. Twelve’s E-Jet helps address this latter issue, by bringing exciting new technology into action to advance new sources of SAF.