{"id":86230,"date":"2021-03-15T07:29:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T06:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=86230"},"modified":"2021-03-10T13:15:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T12:15:32","slug":"qa-clh-on-prospects-of-saf-in-the-spanish-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/qa-clh-on-prospects-of-saf-in-the-spanish-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: CLH on prospects of SAF in the Spanish market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain-based storage and logistics operator CLH and its subsidiary Exolum created the Avikor platform<\/a> in 2020 which offers individuals and companies the possibility of reducing their CO2 emissions from flights through the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). CLH commercial aviation lead Ivan Saco Muino and Exolum director Felix Gomez Cuenca spoke to Argus about Avikor and the future of the SAF industry in Spain.<\/p>\n

Exolum has started to supply SAF to airports in Spain through the use of the Avikor platform, where individuals and companies can offset their CO2 emissions by purchasing SAF. How is the use of the platform progressing and do you plan to extend the services to airlines directly? Are there any plans to extend the platform to markets outside Spain?<\/p>\n

Avikor is an initiative that allows people to fly, reducing or eliminating the CO2 emissions associated with their flight through the use of SAF. The possibility is open to individuals and to companies.<\/p>\n

At the current time of the Covid-19 crisis and the reduction of activity in the aviation sector, it is not the best time to launch the initiative. We were aware of this, but even so it seemed necessary to make it available to people who for one reason or another are flying at this time and have the whole model ready for when the activity is reactivated.<\/p>\n

For the moment, our idea is to deepen the use of SAF by individuals and company flights \u2014 scope 3 of the GHG protocol. Our first idea is to extend the service to more airports in Spain with the same scheme. However, we are attentive to the needs of any other market segments and also to some interesting variations with respect to the initial model.<\/p>\n

How do you view the broader outlook for SAF feedstock availability and are there legislative restrictions in Spain that may hinder this?<\/p>\n

The SAF market certainly needs some measures to be taken and some restrictions to be overcome for its development.<\/p>\n

However, in the short and medium term we do not find the availability of raw materials to be a constraint as such. Let us bear in mind that feedstocks include waste, residual biomass, crops and, at the limit, even CO2. Feedstocks are not a constraint.<\/p>\n

A different issue is that some feedstocks and processes are in incipient or emerging technological development \u2014 low TRL \u2014 and need to evolve, while such evolution represents a decrease in the associated production costs. To argue that for certain feedstocks the cost is unaffordable cannot be considered a restriction, as the same has happened throughout recent history with other technologies that have ended up being competitive.<\/p>\n

According to two legislative frameworks set out by the Spanish Ministry of Transport and Environment, net zero CO2 emissions can be achieved by 2050 if roughly 150,000 t\/yr of SAF is produced by 2025, equivalent to a 2pc blending requirement. How would you describe the progress towards this goal in Spain and what further steps can be taken to encourage uptake?<\/p>\n

The Spanish climate change law is still a draft, so we cannot comment on its final wording. It seems that the law will include the possibility or the objective of establishing a minimum percentage of sustainable biofuel use in aviation in Spain. If this minimum is finally established, we understand that the Avikor initiative launched by Exolum already makes it possible for companies obliged to comply with the obligation to do so in a versatile and flexible, as well as efficient, manner.<\/p>\n

Depending on how the market evolves, whether it is mandatory or not, it will be necessary to develop SAF production projects taking advantage of the advantages of the country \u2014 biomass surface, renewable energies… \u2014 many of these projects are already in the basic engineering phase and we do not think it will be too complicated to advance their construction once the market conditions justify it.<\/p>\n

Are airlines more likely to use SAF to cut emissions in aviation or might they instead turn to other carbon offsetting schemes given the associated expenses?<\/p>\n

Having the possibility of accessing CO2 offsetting mechanisms is necessary, as it gives companies flexibility in achieving their environmental objectives and in one way or another contributes to the overall reduction of emissions.<\/p>\n

However, we believe that a more robust and convenient way to achieve environmental objectives is through reduction mechanisms, and as such we believe that in the aviation sector the use of SAF is preferable to the use of alternative offsetting mechanisms.<\/p>\n

It should also be noted that in addition to emission reductions, the use of SAF implies circular economy models as well as the generation of activity in rural environments and the associated technological development.<\/p>\n

Do you foresee the establishment of an SAF spot market and how important will a transparent pricing basis for sustainable aviation fuel be in the development of market trade?<\/p>\n

As in most markets, it is very important to have stable supply contracts and spot markets simultaneously. By having both possibilities, each company can optimise management of its business and its exposure to the risks associated with the supply of SAF. We therefore believe that both markets are necessary and desirable.<\/p>\n

The existence of a price and quotation monitoring mechanism at the global level undoubtedly adds transparency to the sector and allows companies operating in different SAF-related business models to make both short-term and long-term decisions, which undoubtedly favours the development of the sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain-based storage and logistics operator CLH and its subsidiary Exolum created the Avikor platform in 2020 which offers individuals and companies the possibility of reducing their CO2 emissions from flights through the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). CLH commercial aviation lead Ivan Saco Muino and Exolum director Felix Gomez Cuenca spoke to Argus about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[10794,5838,10617],"supplier":[18284,4271,18283],"class_list":["post-86230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-aviationfuel","tag-bioeconomy","tag-jetfuel","supplier-avikor-platform","supplier-clh","supplier-exolum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86230"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=86230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}