Report: SAF Has Benefits Beyond Just Environmental

While sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has long been hailed for its environmental benefits, the recent conflict in the Middle East and its deleterious effects on the world’s petroleum supplies have highlighted the need to decouple fuel pricing and availability from geopolitical instability.

A new report from UK-based market research firm IDTechEx noted: “Rising oil prices prove that the disadvantages of fossil fuels extend beyond their negative environmental impact. Therefore, sustainable aviation fuel should also be viewed through the lens of empowering energy security.”

The HEFA (hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids) pathway—which uses used cooking oils, fats, and greases as the feedstock instead of fossil fuels—is still the primary production process for SAF. And while the price gap between conventional jet fuel and HEFA SAF has shrunk slightly following the impact of the Iran war, HEFA fuel is still more expensive, the report noted. As well, HEFA SAF production will be constrained by the availability of feedstocks as demand grows.

Other SAF processes are still gaining market traction, including alcohol-to-jet or Fischer–Tropsch synthesis that use bio-based feedstocks such as bioethanol or municipal solid waste that can be sourced locally. When it comes to feedstock flexibility, eSAF produced using CO2 from the air combined with green hydrogen (generated from water using renewable energy) is the ultimate winner, according to the report.

Although production of jet fuel via these pathways is currently more costly than HEFA SAF, the greater availability of feedstocks for these fuels means they can be produced in large quantities as the SAF space matures. According to the report, the demand for SAF will expand beyond what can be produced by HEFA alone by the next decade, meaning “the sustainable fuel landscape will need to become much more diverse by 2036.”