Kiri Hannifin: Air NZ Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer on the move to turn forestry waste into jet fuel

A sustainable method of producing jet-fuel could be on the horizon for New Zealand air carriers.  

A study commissioned by Air New Zealand found it's possible to create jet fuel out of forestry industry waste like sawdust, slash, and offcuts.  

Through chemical processes, the waste is turned into ethanol and then kerosene.  

Air New Zealand's Kiri Hannifin told Ryan Bridge that it’s a global phenomenon moving at great pace. 

She said that at the moment there’s about 30 manufacturers in the world, and they’ll need around 5000 to 7000 by 2050 to ensure sufficient supply.  

Hannifin says it’s taken a while to get off the ground since the process is so technical, but it will start to move pretty quickly from here. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sustainable jet fuel made with wood residue could make up
twenty five percent of our domestic fuel needs, according to
a new study by Air New Zealand and LANZA. Jet
wood waste like slash and low value wood products can
be turned into the fuel which could soon be manufactured
right here in New Zealand, potentially creating hundreds of regional jobs.
Kerrie Hannafin is in New Zealand's chief sustainability and corporate

(00:21):
affairs officers. She's with us Live this morning. Carry good morning, Oh,
good morning, nice to talk to you. Nice to have
you on the program. So are we talking forestry slash?
Stuff that you would go and get from the forest,
take it process and then stick it in the plane.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Essentially, it's the waste from the forestry industry, that's right.
And through a process the woody biomass is turned into
a guess and then using bacteria into ethanol, and the
from ethanol it's processed into kerosene which we can fly with.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
That's right, okay, And the goal is for the industry
at least to create one hundred million leasures here. Why
is no one doing it already?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's happening all over the world. So there's a huge
movement to this clean fuel and it's happening sort of
in countries, so countries are doing it on themselves. So
most of us now all of us actually rely on
liquid fuel coming out of just a few nation states
fossil jet fuel. And because of the transition to sort
of cleaner fuels that we all need to go to
towards twenty fifty, countries are working up that they can

(01:25):
make it themselves using non fossil material So it's a
global phenomenon inhabiting at great pace.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Actually, right, but still I'm only supplying about one percent
of global fossil of global aviation fuel demand, is that right?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's right. So at the moment is about thirty manufacturers
in the world, and by twenty fifty we need about
five thousand, five to seven thousand, so huge, huge list
needed in the next of couple of decades.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
What's stopping the industry in New Zealand, I guess is
my question.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, it's still pretty you know, new technology, so I
guess we're all learning. It's the number one. Number two.
There's only a few people doing at the moment because
it's so technical, so there's a few big manufacturers and
Lunds of jet A one of them, the ones that
we didn't study with. And then it's quite slow. It
takes a little bit of time to find the right feedstock.
So we're looking at wood waste here to make the plants,

(02:20):
to get the investment to make the plant, and then
to start making it. So it's just time. But you know,
every week there seems to be a new announcement somewhere
in the world. It was Argentina last week. Bgre looking
at it to start looking at whether that could be manufactured.
So it's going to move pretty quickly, but it's just
taken a little while to take off.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
What's the cost difference for you guys at the moment
jet fuel versus you know, the sustainable fuel.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, anywhere between two and five times the price of
fossil jet fuel. So it is expensive. It's most affordable
when we buy it out of America because it's highly subsidized.
The American Biden put in a the Inflation Reduction Act
and there's trillions of the US dollars going into renewable
energy and that's brought the price down of it. So

(03:04):
anywhere between two de vive and we obviously try to
get it at the two premium, you know, and try
to get it out of the States because it's just
much more affordable.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Does that mean, I mean, if it could make up
twenty five percent of our domestic fuel jet fuel needs,
does that mean high prices.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
The moment we're absorbing it is a cost of doing business.
And you know what, this is all sort of part
of the market kind of move. The more supply we
have and the more supply we can support, the sort
of more strong demand signals to get their supply going,
the price will come down. It's just sort of supply
and demand economics. And because so many countries now have

(03:40):
regulated the use of this alternative fuel, the fossil majors
are having to start manufacturing it and providing it as
part of their engagement and providing fuel to countries. So
it's all going in the right way. All airlines by
twenty fifty you have to fly with nothing but seth.
It's only a couple of decades, so it we'll move

(04:01):
in the right direction. We just got to get the
market going, which is what he's really interested to support.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
What happens if you don't by twenty fifty We've got
about ten seconds we need aviation.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Aviation will be about a quarter twenty five percent of
the world's carbon emissions if we don't sort it out right.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
But if you don't, you can keep flying, right, I mean,
it's not like it's going to take you on. Yeah, okay, y,
thank you. Kerry Henderson and he's in on the Sea
sustateability in corporate a fairs office. For more from Early
Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks. It'd
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.