First for India: IOC Panipat Refinery certified to produce continuous aviation fuel. Bharat News
New Delhi: For India, a refinery here has been certified to produce a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) here. COTECNA Inspection India Private Limited has certified the phenipat refinery of Indian oil to use the cooking oil used for replacement of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).“Union Petroleum and Aviation Ministry worked together, which works to certify the refineries in India for SAF production to SAF. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) coordinated it and as a result a first refinery has been certified as a co-operative plant. Will take steps.
The Panipat Refinery now complies with the requirements of “Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation” (Corsia)-a global market-based measures designed to help the international aviation industry to reduce its carbon footprint. Corsia is an important part of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) strategy that is to achieve carbon-plate growth for international flights. Established in 1974 in Switzerland, Cotecna is a major provider of testing, inspection and certification services. Cotecna Inspection India Private Limited is part of that group.India has planned to make SAF compulsory compulsory with traditional ATFs to reduce carbon emissions from the aviation sector. The plan increases to 2% in the next year either the next year to consider the initial SAF combination target of 1% for all international flights by 2027. Subsequently, combination for domestic flights can be managed. SAF is not allowed for commercial flights in India.In August 2018, SpiceJet operated India’s first bijet fuel flight using a mixture of 75% regular ATF and 25% biofuels. Flight, a test run, was operated on a Bombardier Q400 aircraft from Dehradun to Delhi. The biofuel was developed by the Indian Institute of Petroleum at Dehradun, in which Jatropha was used as Feedstock.Subsequently, IndiGo conducted demonstration flights using mixed SAF with regular ATFs when it operated its first international boat flight in February 2022, with a 10% SAF mixture from Tooluz to Delhi.Airlines are globally and in India with mixed ATFs with tested flights. However, the biggest challenge everywhere is the availability of the required amount of SAF.
