Abstract
This study demonstrates that the US 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides a pathway to lower the cost of producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by up to a third, making it cost-competitive with conventional jet fuel. We investigate three hydrogen-intensive electrofuel pathways—i.e., using carbon from biomass, point source emissions, and direct air capture (DAC)—for all contiguous US counties. In particular, the SAF production pathway using hydrogen produced from off-grid renewables and carbon from biomass offers several promising benefits, namely a 2.5-fold increase in biomass efficiency; 60% and 58% decreases in water and land use, respectively; and 93% and above-99% carbon emissions reductions compared to biomass-based SAF strategies and fossil jet fuel, respectively. This approach requires an average of only 4% of counties’ renewable electricity potential to meet 2050 SAF production targets. Consequently, we suggest stakeholders develop a revised strategy to significantly scale US deployment of economically viable SAF that leverages low-cost clean hydrogen supply enabled by the high-quality renewable potential and long-lasting IRA incentives.