Shades of Green

Hillsboro is Oregon’s fifth-largest city and home to some 107,000 Hillsboroans. Known colloquially as the Silicone Forest, Hillsboro’s indigenous high-tech concerns include Synopses, Epson, Oracle, Salesforce, RadiSys, Planar Systems, and microchip-titan Intel. Hillsboro Airport (HIO) is Oregon’s second busiest aerodrome and a veritable hive of corporate, general aviation, and flight-training activity.

Hillsboro Aviation—HIO’s preeminent FBO, charter-operator, maintenance-facility, and aircraft management outfit—recently accepted its first delivery of Neste’s MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel.  In collaboration with Avfuel Corporation and Finnish petroleum company Neste, Hillsboro Aviation has secured the first business aviation foothold for SAF in the state of Oregon.

Hillsboro Aviation vice president and COO Ryan McCartney states: “The Pacific Northwest is more than just where we work. It’s where many of our team members call home. Where our parents chose to raise us. And where we choose to raise our families. Our Oregon roots—as a company and as a team—mean we’re passionate about doing what’s right for the environment, and, in turn, what’s right for our team, our customers and our community. It’s a point of real pride for our team to be the first FBO to welcome SAF supply in Oregon.”

Avfuel manager of alternative fuels Keith Sawyer adds: “Oregon has been a trailblazing state for clean air legislative initiatives. Furthermore, the team at Portland’s Hillsboro Aviation is passionate about environmental conservation, which made it the perfect first FBO partner to establish SAF supply in the state. We are thankful to its team for leading the SAF initiative in the Pacific Northwest as we work tirelessly with Neste to make SAF an available alternative throughout business aviation.”

Hillsboro Aviation, Avfuel, and Neste have worked diligently to ensure consistent supply of MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel, and assert with confidence that the recently-delivered, 8,000-gallon-truckload of SAF is the first of many by which Oregon’s conservation-minded aviators and flight-departments may advance the sustainability of their flight operations.

Environmental pundits maintain SAF is capable of reducing aircraft greenhouse gas emissions by up to eighty-percent—provided it’s used in its undiluted form, a practice of which not a single aircraft-engine OEM currently approves.

Notwithstanding the accolades of progressive factions, Neste has been criticized for using palm oil and palm fatty acid distillate in the production of its MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Palm oil derives of commercial palm plantations—the establishment of which accounts for the majority of Southeast Asian rainforest clearing and burning. What’s more, numerous respected conservationists and environmental agencies call attention to the fact that the production of a single gallon of sustainable aviation fuel is predicated upon the consumption of 1,300-gallons of fresh water.

That aircraft emissions must be curtailed is universally agreed upon. That so-called sustainable aviation fuels are the best means to do so is a matter of opinion.

FMI: www.hillsboroaviation.com/fbo