The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced it will be awarding $300 million in grants to fund the production and development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and technologies.
The funding is part of the FAA’s Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) program, which aims to help the aviation industry achieve net-zero emission as early as by 2025.
Furthermore, the move is also part of the Administration’s SAF Grand Challenge, which entails the production of 3 billion gallons of SAF annually by 2030 and a massive 35 billion gallons of SAF annually by 2050.
Hence, the end game is for SAF to cover 100% of aviation fuel demand in the United States by mid-century.
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The funding will go towards supporting a range of different feedstocks, including waste CO2 and carbon captured with the help of direct air capture (DAC) technology.
Most of the $300 million ($245 million) in grants will be made available for the development of sustainable aviation fuel, whereas eligible projects will have to fall into at least one of the following categories: production, transportation, blending, and storage.
In order to be considered for the program, candidates must submit their application by November 27, 2023.
The remaining $47 million of the funding is dedicated to developing low-emission aviation technologies, where projects will fall into one of two categories: low-emission aviation technology development and enhanced test/demonstration capability.
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