First projections

Wind power, water, and CO₂ – removed from the atmosphere – are sufficient to generate green aviation fuels in the co-called “power-to-liquid” process (PtL). What sounds like a vision of the future, is actually being driven forward in many places in Germany: In mid-August, the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) opened the first integrated PtL trial plant in the world. The Heide refinery is building a PtL facility in a real lab together with partners. Lufthansa will be the first customer. At the latest in 2024, 5% of the fuel that we tank at Hamburg Airport will be synthetically manufactured kerosene. Hesse wants to become a pioneer in the fuel reform in aviation. Hesse’s state government has announced that it will invest significantly into research of electricity-based fuels. A power-to-X competence centre will be created in Brandenburg. Here, too, Lufthansa is a partner.

Now it’s up to politics

At the moment, only smaller quantities of synthetic fuels are available and are so expensive that they are hardly usable. It is important to make the jump to industrial production. The world of politics has committed to this goal repeatedly, most recently in mid-November at the Power-to-X Conference of the Ministry of the Environment. Now they have to back up these words with action:

• Developing strategies: In the Leipzig Declaration, Germany’s Federal Government and the federal states have agreed to develop a PtL road map together with the industry. We are there as a partner with our expertise.
• Increasing funding: The Federal Government has promised € 100 million each year for 2020 and 2021 for alternative drives and fuels. Compared to the € 2 billion that the aviation tax is supposed to generate soon, this is a very humble amount. The funding should urgently be increased.
• Starting internationale initiatives: Germany has the opportunity to take on a world-wide leadership position in this field. Beyond national ventures, we need an international plan to develop production plants and provide regenerative fuels at competitive prices. At the moment, PtL fuels are still up to five times as expensive as regular kerosene. For this reason, the requirement for a mandatory fuel-mix quota is only possible on the global level. National regulations would massively distort competition.