Spotlight on the Emerging Market for Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Today, aviation is responsible for approximately 2% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has emerged as the primary means of emissions abatement for the aviation industry, but significant barriers to widespread adoption remain. Despite the challenges, the urgency to bring SAF to scale continues to grow as airlines and corporations look to reduce their scope 1 and scope 3 emissions associated with air travel.
In this webcast, Dr. Julio Friedmann, a globally respected expert in decarbonization and carbon management, and Dr. John Dees, author of the recently published Sustainable Aviation Fuels Primer, provide a comprehensive overview of the state of SAF today.
Julio Friedmann, PhD
Julio Friedmann, PhD
Dr. Friedmann is one of the most widely known and authoritative experts in the US on carbon removal (CO₂ drawdown from the air and oceans), CO₂ conversion and use (carbon-to-value), hydrogen, industrial decarbonization, green manufacturing, and carbon capture and sequestration.He served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy during the Obama Administration, where he was responsible for DOE's R&D program in advanced fossil energy systems, carbon capture, and storage (CCS), CO₂ utilization, and advanced power generation. More recently, he was a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia. He has held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including Chief Energy Technologist.
Greenman Award (Lifetime achievement in CCS), International Energy Agency: IEA
John Dees, PhD
John Dees, PhD
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Dr. Dees leads Relae's scientific advisory practice for the transportation fuel and industrial commodity sectors. He brings interdisciplinary expertise to the bioeconomy and bioenergy systems, bridging industrial ecology, economics, and climate policy to drive decarbonization. As a researcher, Dr. Dees explored the role of biomass as both an energy feedstock and a substrate for carbon removal (BiCRS), integrating technoeconomic analysis and life cycle assessment with market-enabling policy. His work has been featured in leading academic journals, including Environmental Science and Technology, Green Chemistry, and ES&T Water. Over a two-year collaboration with the Energy Systems team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dr. Dees was a lead contributor to the US DRIVE Net-Zero Carbon Fuels Technical Analysis, evaluating the potential for ethanol decarbonization and the climate impacts of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). At Relae, he directs an interdisciplinary team to provide strategic guidance at the intersection of transport fuels and heavy industry. He has spearheaded the development of industry-standard resources, including the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Primer and the Criteria for High-Quality Environmental Attribute Certificates for the steel and concrete sectors.
Graduate Fellow (2015-2020), NSF; Udall Scholar (2014), Udall Foundation
In This Session
- The SAF landscape today, including the full range of fuel types, carbon intensities, sustainability criteria, and costs.
- How book-and-claim models spread the emissions reductions benefits and costs of SAF across scope 1 and scope 3 emitters to accelerate commercial development and scale.
- How organizations like the GHG protocol and SBTi view SAF and its implications for both airlines and corporations.
- Key issues regarding sustainability, carbon, equity, and ability to bring solutions to market.
