RLCF Alliance marks milestone in the pursuit of sustainable aviation and maritime fuels

On 16 October 2023, the second General Assembly of the Renewable and Low-Carbon Fuels Value Chain Industrial Alliance (RLCF) took place, heralding a significant step towards the production of sustainable and renewable aviation and waterborne fuels. The assembly accepted deliverables of the Roundtables, endorsed the work plan for 2023-2024, and renewed the mandate for Mr. Eric Dalbies (Senior VP, Safran) and Mr. Davide Cucino (VP, Fincantieri) as Chairs of the General Assembly.

The General Assembly was divided into four blocks, kicking off with high level support from European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean, represented by her Deputy Head of Cabinet Pablo Fabregas, as well as with encouraging interventions by members of the European Parliament Jörgen Warborn and José Ramón Bauzá Díaz, respectively rapporteurs of FuelEU Maritime and FuelEU Aviation. This was followed by updates on last year’s work by Eric Dalbies (Safran, chair of aviation pillar), Davide Cucino (Fincantieri, chair of maritime pillar), John Cooper (FuelsEurope) and Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (Hydrogen Europe), the latter two forming the Alliance Secretariat which involved 24 expert group meetings, dissemination sessions at EU Sustainable Energy Week, Pau Motor Show and Paris Air Show, an intervention at ICAO and many more activities.

During the second part of the meeting, Tobias Block (eFuelAlliance), Antoine Laborde (Air France), Alexander Feindt (Man Energy Solutions) and Riccardo Dutto (Intesa Sanpaolo) shared the achievements of the four roundtables, including fuels technology mapping, demand projections, and a funding guide with simplified business models.

Following an open invitation to Members, 12 maritime and aviation fuel projects were selected for showcasing. The members of the Alliance used the opportunity to directly interact with promotors of investment projects into aviation and maritime fuels. projects were presented by Ballard, EDL, Electriq, Evergreen, LanzaJet, Mabanaft, NordicBlue, ORLEN, Repsol, Rolls-Royce, Sasol and Velocys.

MOVE Director-General Magda Kopczyńska concluded the Assembly by providing an outlook into future activities, including the work on the pipeline of projects contracted to PWC and RINA and the endorsement by the General Assembly of the Alliance Work Plan for 2023-2024, which focuses on monitoring of project delivery, visibility of projects and project recognition/labelling.