In an effort to rally businesses and consumers, United Airlines, Inc. has launched the "United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund", said to be a first-of-its-kind investment vehicle to support start-ups focused on decarbonizing air travel by accelerating the research, production, and technologies associated with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
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The fund starts with more than US$100 million in investments from United and its inaugural partners Air Canada, Boeing, GE Aerospace, JPMorgan Chase, and Honeywell.
Through the fund, these and potentially additional corporate participants will invest alongside United in SAF technology and production start-ups identified by United.
In the past two years alone, United Airlines Ventures, United’s corporate venture arm, has invested in start-ups such as Cemvita, Dimensional Energy, and NEXT Renewable Fuels.
Optional consumer contribution
In a first among US airlines, anyone who buys a ticket on the United website or app now has the option to contribute to supplement United’s investment in the fund.
SAF is an alternative to conventional jet fuel that, on a lifecycle basis, reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with air travel compared to conventional jet fuel alone.
SAF, which currently must be blended with conventional jet fuel to meet regulatory requirements for use within the aircraft, is being made from used cooking oil (UCO) and agricultural waste, and, in the future, could be made from other feedstocks including household trash or forest waste.
Solving climate change is doable but it requires hard work and real leadership. This fund is unique. It’s not about offsets or things that are just greenwashing. Instead, we’re creating a system that drives investment to build a new industry around sustainable aviation fuel, essentially from scratch. That’s the only way we can actually decarbonize aviation said United CEO Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines.
To date, United has invested in the future production of over three billion (US) gallons (≈ 11.4 billion litres) of SAF – the most of any airline in the world.
UAV Sustainable Flight Fund
The UAV Sustainable Flight Fund is open to investment by corporations across industries and the fund will prioritize investment in new technology, advanced fuel sources, and proven producers, all in an effort to scale the supply of SAF.
Partners of the fund also have the potential to gain preferential access to environmental attributes associated with United’s supply of SAF.
United has already made investments in or signed purchase agreements with companies using a variety of ingredients and technologies to produce SAF, including feedstocks like ethanol, animal byproducts, forestry and crop waste, and municipal waste, as well as early-stage, promising technologies like synthetic biology and power to liquids (PtL).
United Airlines Ventures will move selected existing SAF investments to establish the UAV Sustainable Flight Fund portfolio.
Consumer awareness and Call to Action
United is also educating consumers about their air travel carbon footprint and giving them the option to take action.
As of February 21, 2023, United became the first US airline to show customers an estimate of each flight’s carbon footprint in their search. Green shading indicates a lower-carbon option on a per economy seat passenger basis in a customer’s chosen itinerary.
A flight’s carbon footprint is measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (kg CO2eq) and United’s estimates, which could differ from actual flight emissions, are based on aircraft type, flying time, seat capacity, and the number of people and cargo on a given flight.
Consumers who book travel through United for travel within or from the U.S. will now see an option to contribute to supplement United’s investment in the UAV Sustainable Flight Fund before check-out.
The default option for customer contributions is set at US$3.50 to illustrate the potential impact of customer action at scale – if the 152 million people who flew on United in 2022 each contributed just US$3.50 to the UAV Sustainable Flight Fund, that would be enough to design and build a SAF refinery capable of producing as much as 40 million gallons (≈ 151 million litres) of alternative fuel annually, based on an illustrative capital expenditure benchmark of US$200 000 per barrel per day.
Federal recognition of the value of SAF
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes the largest governmental climate change investments in US history – a new blender’s tax credit specifically for SAF along with other critical incentives for clean energy and carbon capture – that will help spur an increase in SAF infrastructure and supply while lowering costs for SAF consumers.
The US military currently uses nearly five billion gallons (≈ 19 billion litres) of jet fuel annually and the Department of Defense (DOD) will use a jet fuel blend containing at least 10 percent SAF by 2028 because of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), the country’s vast feedstock resources are enough to meet the projected SAF demand of the entire US aviation industry.
