Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Kiri Hannifin: Air NZ Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer on the move to turn forestry waste into jet fuel

Transcript

Kiri Hannifin: Air NZ Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer on the move to turn forestry waste into jet fuel · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Sustainable jet fuel made with wood residue could make up
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: twenty five percent of our domestic fuel needs, according to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a new study by Air New Zealand and LANZA. Jet
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: wood waste like slash and low value wood products can
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: be turned into the fuel which could soon be manufactured
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: right here in New Zealand, potentially creating hundreds of regional jobs.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Kerrie Hannafin is in New Zealand's chief sustainability and corporate
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: affairs officers. She's with us Live this morning. Carry good morning, Oh,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: good morning, nice to talk to you. Nice to have
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you on the program. So are we talking forestry slash?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Stuff that you would go and get from the forest,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: take it process and then stick it in the plane.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Essentially, it's the waste from the forestry industry, that's right.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: And through a process the woody biomass is turned into
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: a guess and then using bacteria into ethanol, and the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: from ethanol it's processed into kerosene which we can fly with.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: That's right, okay, And the goal is for the industry
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: at least to create one hundred million leasures here. Why
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: is no one doing it already?
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: It's happening all over the world. So there's a huge
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: movement to this clean fuel and it's happening sort of
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: in countries, so countries are doing it on themselves. So
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: most of us now all of us actually rely on
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: liquid fuel coming out of just a few nation states
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: fossil jet fuel. And because of the transition to sort
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: of cleaner fuels that we all need to go to
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: towards twenty fifty, countries are working up that they can
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: make it themselves using non fossil material So it's a
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: global phenomenon inhabiting at great pace.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Actually, right, but still I'm only supplying about one percent
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: of global fossil of global aviation fuel demand, is that right?
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: That's right. So at the moment is about thirty manufacturers
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: in the world, and by twenty fifty we need about
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: five thousand, five to seven thousand, so huge, huge list
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: needed in the next of couple of decades.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: What's stopping the industry in New Zealand, I guess is
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: my question.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Well, it's still pretty you know, new technology, so I
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: guess we're all learning. It's the number one. Number two.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: There's only a few people doing at the moment because
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: it's so technical, so there's a few big manufacturers and
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Lunds of jet A one of them, the ones that
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: we didn't study with. And then it's quite slow. It
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: takes a little bit of time to find the right feedstock.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So we're looking at wood waste here to make the plants,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: to get the investment to make the plant, and then
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: to start making it. So it's just time. But you know,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: every week there seems to be a new announcement somewhere
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: in the world. It was Argentina last week. Bgre looking
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: at it to start looking at whether that could be manufactured.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: So it's going to move pretty quickly, but it's just
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: taken a little while to take off.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: What's the cost difference for you guys at the moment
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: jet fuel versus you know, the sustainable fuel.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, anywhere between two and five times the price of
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: fossil jet fuel. So it is expensive. It's most affordable
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: when we buy it out of America because it's highly subsidized.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: The American Biden put in a the Inflation Reduction Act
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: and there's trillions of the US dollars going into renewable
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: energy and that's brought the price down of it. So
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: anywhere between two de vive and we obviously try to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: get it at the two premium, you know, and try
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: to get it out of the States because it's just
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: much more affordable.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Does that mean, I mean, if it could make up
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: twenty five percent of our domestic fuel jet fuel needs,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: does that mean high prices.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: The moment we're absorbing it is a cost of doing business.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: And you know what, this is all sort of part
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: of the market kind of move. The more supply we
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: have and the more supply we can support, the sort
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of more strong demand signals to get their supply going,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: the price will come down. It's just sort of supply
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: and demand economics. And because so many countries now have
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: regulated the use of this alternative fuel, the fossil majors
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: are having to start manufacturing it and providing it as
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: part of their engagement and providing fuel to countries. So
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: it's all going in the right way. All airlines by
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: twenty fifty you have to fly with nothing but seth.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: It's only a couple of decades, so it we'll move
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: in the right direction. We just got to get the
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: market going, which is what he's really interested to support.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: What happens if you don't by twenty fifty We've got
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: about ten seconds we need aviation.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Aviation will be about a quarter twenty five percent of
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: the world's carbon emissions if we don't sort it out right.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: But if you don't, you can keep flying, right, I mean,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: it's not like it's going to take you on. Yeah, okay, y,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: thank you. Kerry Henderson and he's in on the Sea
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: sustateability in corporate a fairs office. For more from Early
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks. It'd
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.