Three giants in their field announced a memorandum of understanding Tuesday to track the emissions from test batches of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Chevron will produce a test batch of SAF at its El Segundo Refinery, sell it to Delta Air Lines to use, while Google builds a cloud-based analytics framework to securely analyse data.
The companies hope this approach will allow for more transparency in analysing greenhouse gas emissions from SAF that can be used by other organisations.
“The data sharing and transparency component of this partnership will help us better understand the emissions from sustainable aviation fuel production and delivery, supporting our goal to advance lower carbon fuels,” said Andy Walz, president of Americas fuels and lubricants for Chevron.
Sustainable jet fuel is made using feedstocks from organic matter such as crops, manure and agriculture waste, which significantly reduces carbon intensity over the lifecycle of the fuel, in some cases up to 80% compared to fossil fuels, according to the International Air Transport Association.
“As aviation continues to define a more sustainable future, understanding the environmental impacts of our operations will be paramount as we look to mitigate climate change,” said Amelia DeLuca, Delta’s managing director of sustainability.
“On top of being the first carbon-neutral airline on a global basis, we’ve pledged to replace 10% of our jet fuel with SAF by 2030.
"This partnership has the potential to help us achieve that goal while providing important data and analytics that demonstrate the environmental integrity of our commitment.”
