When I founded EAI in 2008, one of the real inspirations was biofuels – especially aviation biofuels (as I had earlier worked in the travel / aviation sector and also had an undergrad in Aerospace Engg).
Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) were in their infancy then – just a test flight or two flying on biofuels – as I was reminded by a brief photograph I found from an old book I was reading today.
Cut to 2023, SAF is still in its infancy, and we are still ecstatic about a single flight using SAF, as Virgin Atlantic did recently ( https://lnkd.in/g-qDtAdp ).
In the 15 years since I started EAI, I had moved on to provide consulting in solar, wind power, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, bioplastics, green hydrogen, green chemicals, waste to energy and more, and seen many of them grow to at least decent levels, with some such as solar exceptionally well.
And all along, transportation biofuels (except for ethanol), has pretty much stayed where it was in 2008. The needle on aviation biofuels had barely moved!
Biofuels present an exciting transition low carbon opportunity for transport, but its journey has been a non-starter in most cases.
In 2008, people were talking about sustainable aviation fuels being five years away. And they have been pretty consistent in their opinion for 15 years – as it remains unchanged even now!Activate to view larger image,
ZEV India Partnership – Driving Truck Electrification through Collaboration
