Lufthansa Group is a partner and pilot customer of the world’s first production plant for power-to-liquid aviation fuels.

Until now, Lufthansa Group airlines have used biogenic sustainable aviation fuels: kerosene produced from agricultural waste or used cooking oils.

But the world’s first industrial plant that produces CO₂-neutral electricity-based kerosene was officially opened this week in Werlte/Emsland. It is operated by the climate protection organisation atmosfair and produces synthetic fuel for aircraft from water, CO₂ and renewable electricity. The Lufthansa Group is a partner in the pioneering project and is one of the first customers to purchase this sustainable, electricity-based kerosene. In this way, the company is making an important contribution to establishing PtL (‘power to liquid’) production and promoting the market development of the first available CO₂-neutral synthetic kerosene.

Christina Foerster, Member of the Executive Board Deutsche Lufthansa AG said,

Lufthansa’s airlines have been focusing on the research and use of sustainable aviation fuels for many years. We are currently the largest customer in Europe.

Synthetic fuels from renewable energies are the kerosene of the future. They enable CO₂-neutral aviation. With its partnership with atmosfair, the Lufthansa Group takes the lead again and provides a boost to the production of PtL.

The Lufthansa Group will purchase at least 25,000 litres of PtL fuel annually over the next five years and make it available to customers. To use the first quantities, the logistics providers Kuehne+Nagel and Lufthansa Cargo have agreed on an exclusive partnership to purchase the fuel.

Dorothea von Boxberg, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo AG said,

We see the key to a sustainable reduction of our emissions in flight operations in the research and use of synthetic, sustainable aviation fuels.

The fact that we are now pioneering power-to-liquid technology together with Kuehne+Nagel makes us particularly proud and shows once again that we are actively tackling our climate protection challenges

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