In the coming years, we could hear about “Power to Liquid” as a sustainable alternative fuel in the aviation sector. This is the opinion of our guest Xavier Bouis, former director of the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research.
Often singled out for its carbon impact, the aviation sector represents around 3% of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Even if this transport segment does not represent the largest part of the pie chart in terms of GHG emissions, it is now imperative – as in all economic sectors – to accelerate the energy transition. By 2050, global air traffic is expected to double and it is no longer possible not to look for an alternative to fossil fuels.
In January 2020, Elisabeth Borne, the French Minister for Ecological Transition – then visiting Airbus in Toulouse – launched a call for expressions of interest on sustainable biofuels for aviation. The idea is to start smoothly with 2% biofuels in aircraft engines in 2025 to reach 50% in 2050.
CO2 pumped into the atmosphere
But what biofuels are we talking about exactly? Do the existing alternatives offer sufficient performance to be deployed on an industrial scale? For the moment the miracle solution does not exist but new promising avenues are emerging, and this is the case of the PTL. the Power to Liquid is an e-fuel, a liquid fuel obtained by combining carbon dioxide pumped from the atmosphere and hydrogen, created by electrolysis. For this chemical grub to be carbon neutral, it must be powered exclusively by renewable energies. Provided that the right infrastructure is quickly built, the PTL could become a real solution for the aviation sector.
The most advanced pioneers in the field are in Germany and Switzerland where the first projects were launched ten years ago. The development of the sector is such that the German roadmap gives objectives for the use of this PTL for its domestic flights from 2030. In France, the initiative is less advanced and it seems rather to come from the private sector with the KerEAUzen project led in Normandy by Engie in partnership with the German company Sunfire, as well as Airbus, Safran, Air France and the ADP group.
The option of e-kerozene is promoted in particular by the Space Air Academy through a report published after the organization of an expert conference in March 2021. To talk about it, we welcome one of the authors of this report: Xavier Bouis, former director of the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research.
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