Aviation requires suite of technologies to decarbonise

Sustainable aviation fuel likely to be responsible for bulk of decarbonisation before 2050

The aviation sector will employ a range of technologies to decarbonise, according to panellists at last week’s FT Hydrogen Summit. While smaller aircraft are likely to be powered by battery engines, compressed hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells, the global fleet of larger planes will likely opt for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and, later, liquid hydrogen, according to David Morgan, director of flight operations at airline Easyjet. “There will be a number of different fuels: it is not either/or,” he says. This means developing dual-fuel infrastructure—although this should not be an issue as SAF is effectively a drop-in fuel and a liquid hydrogen network could be built up slowly. “We will see