National, September 21, 2022: Reinforcing the Tata group's commitment towards Net-zero, Tata group airlines, Air India, Air Asia India and Vistara inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Council Of Scientific and Industrial Research–Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP) to collaborate on the research and development of sustainable aviation fuels.
The use of petroleum-derived fuel for aviation contributes considerably to greenhouse gas emissions globally. Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) - made from sustainable resources coming from forestry, agricultural waste and biodegradable wastes like used cooking oil can be blended with fossil fuels like aviation turbine fuel to reduce emissions.
While the concept of SAF among Indian airlines is still at a nascent stage, the Tata group airlines have come together to develop low-carbon fuels with special focus on exploring Single Reactor HEFA (fuels) Technology which would create sustainable Aviation and Automotive Fuel which can utilize the existing fuel transportation and distribution infrastructure.
The MoU signing event was attended by Siddharth Sharma (Group chief sustainability officer – Tata group), Niyant Maru (chief financial officer – Vistara), Campbell Wilson (MD and CEO - Air India), Sunil Bhaskaran (MD and CEO - AirAsia India) and Dr Anjan Ray (director - CSIR-IIP).
Mr Siddharth Sharma, group chief sustainability officer, Tata group said, “The idea of this collaboration is to work towards creating an ecosystem which will help our aviation companies grow in a responsible and sustainable manner, consistent with the long term goal of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to make global aviation Net-zero by 2050. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step and that is precisely what this MoU signifies.”
This collaboration is being coordinated by the Tata Sustainability group (TSG) working closely with the Tata airline companies and CSIR-IIP. The Tata group recently outlined a transformative vision on sustainability which envisages the group becoming Net-zero by 2045.
