International Airlines Group (IAG) has announced its largest sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) procurement deal to date. The multinational airline group is sourcing 260 million gallons (approximately 785,000 tons) of SAF from Twelve, a US e-fuels startup, over a 14-year period.
The fuel will be used by all five of the group’s airlines – British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL.
To put this amount in context, IAG has previously stated that it aims to be using one million tons of SAF per year by 2030, which is the year the airline group expects to reach a 10% share of SAF in its fuel consumption.
California-based Twelve, which is a previous participant in IAG’s Hangar51 accelerator program, has developed proprietary technology for e-fuel production using the power-to-liquids process.
This pathway to produce sustainable aviation fuel uses carbon dioxide (CO2), water and (sustainably produced) electricity to produce SAF. Captured carbon dioxide (CO2) is converted into carbon monoxide (CO), while an electrolyzer produces (green) hydrogen from water. Hydrogen and CO are then turned into syngas, which is, in turn, transformed into drop-in liquid jet fuel.
In addition to reducing emissions by 90%, power-to-liquids fuel production is not constrained by the scarcity of raw materials.
Twelve has a pilot plant in Moses Lake, Washington, United States, where the first batches of SAF will be produced. However, speaking with AeroTime in 2023, Ashwin Jadhav, Vice President, Business Development at Twelve, confirmed that the firm is looking at five or six other locations in the US Midwest to scale up its power-to-liquids SAF production in the coming years.
In addition to IAG, Twelve has also announced deals with Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad to supply SAF from 2025/26 and has a partnership with Alaska Airlines.
