Phil Simpson is the founder of LanzaTech, a green tech startup company which helped pioneer a method of turning gas into ethanol, used in making sustainable aviation fuel. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
Hopes are high that a sustainable aviation fuel industry will be able to take off in Aotearoa, bringing skilled employment to regional New Zealand - including areas that have lost jobs in recent pulp and timber mill closures.
Last year Air New Zealand led a study which found that New Zealand could make up to 102 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel or SAF each year, using waste from the forestry industry.
That would be enough to save 230,000 tonnes of aviation carbon emissions each year.
Areas like the Central North Island and the East Coast could benefit from the new industry, but it would likely require some government policy support to get up and running.
The Tai Rāwhiti region has plenty of wood and workers to harvest and process it - making it a potential candidate for SAF production.
Eastland Wood Council chairperson Julian Kohn said the forestry industry would welcome investors to consider the East Coast.
"With the economic situation in the country and on the East Coast at the moment, any improvement in employment is going to have significant social as well as environmental and economic benefits to a region such as Gisborne."
But there would need to be some teamwork to make it happen, he said.
"I think the real issue here is that the co-operation between the local industry, the Gisborne District Council and central government would be critical to advancing any sort of processing opportunities that were here."
Weston Kirton is the mayor of the Ruapehu district, an area with a strong history in the forestry industry.
But last year two of the area's and paper mills closed down meaning hundreds of jobs were lost in the region.
Kirton said getting a SAF production industry up and running could bring back skilled employment to the region.
"It'd be really great if we had another initiative, whether it be associated with timber or some other by-product or product would be certainly welcome."
He was hopeful the existing infrastructure in the area could be put to good use.
"I think a lot of the assets that have been left and residue from the Winstone Pulp Mill would be still useful and fit for purpose. So it gives a wide range of opportunities."
Sean Simpson is the founder of LanzaTech, a green tech startup company which helped pioneer a method of turning gas into ethanol, used in making sustainable aviation fuel.
Starting a SAF industry in New Zealand would be expensive to set up, but well worth it in the long run, he said.
"With the right policy mandates, I think we can pay that money back relatively quickly. We can leverage the existing infrastructure that we have and then we would need to establish an industry to gasify, transform and produce the aviation fuel."
Making sure New Zealand's aviation industry was sustainable was also essential for enticing environmentally-conscious tourists here from places like Europe, he said.
"They're sitting around, they're talking to their friends. Their friends are saying that they're for environmental reasons looking at getting a train to Turkey or a train to Greece. And they're second guessing their interest in taking a flight to New Zealand."
Air New Zealand and Qantas have both showed support for government mandates of the amount of SAF airlines have to fly with, which Simpson said would be crucial to making sure the industry could take off.
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