Organized by the Dutch national airline, Shell and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, this world first took place in January 2021 between Amsterdam-Schiphol and Madrid Airport on a Boeing 737-800.
The flight, announced at an SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) conference, was operated with a 500-liter blend of sustainable synthetic kerosene, produced by Shell at its Amsterdam research center "from CO2, water and renewable energy from the sun and wind on Dutch soil."
During the conference, the stage was set for various new initiatives and startups. For example, startup Synkero announced that it is collaborating with the Port of Amsterdam, Schiphol, KLM and SkyNRG on the realization of a commercial sustainable synthetic kerosene plant in the Port of Amsterdam. The project seeks to partner with sustainable initiatives in the North Sea Canal region, such as the creation of a 100 megawatt hydrogen plant where up to 15,000 tons of green hydrogen can be produced with sustainable electricity.
Another initiative is the construction of a sustainable kerosene demonstration plant using CO2 captured from the air as feedstock in Rotterdam. The Zenid initiative, involving Uniper, Rotterdam-Hague Airport, Climeworks, SkyNRG and the Rotterdam-Hague Innovation Airport, "uses a combination of innovative technologies to focus on CO2-neutral aviation with sustainable synthetic kerosene."