We discussed the COVID-impact on aviation, regulatory drivers of decarbonization in aviation, and several commitments and investments made by airlines globally in the previous blog. In this blog, we will discuss how growing supply, techno-economic advancements, and feedstock supply will drive global sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) demand growth. There are several ways to manufacture SAF from feedstock ranging from renewable energy, agriculture or forest residue, energy crops, waste, algae, used cooking or plant oils or tallow, and sugarcane, molasses, or corn. The figure below summarizes key approved ‘pathways’ for SAF production by feedstock, initial processing required, and key intermediates in each.
Exhibit 1: Mapping feedstocks to SAF pathways.
HEFA-SPK or synthetic paraffinic kerosene produced from hydro-processed esters and fatty acids uses camelina, jatropha, castor oil, and used cooking oil as feedstock. Alcohol-to-jet (ATJ)-SPK or synthetic paraffinic kerosene uses sugarcane, cassava, sorghum, or corn to make ethanol or isobutanol to be converted into SAF. Gasification/FT-SPK or Fischer-Tropsch synthetic paraffinic kerosene uses agricultural forestry residues, and municipal waste. CHJ is catalytic hydrothermolysis synthetic jet fuel that uses triglyceride-based feedstocks such as waste oil, algae, soybean, and camelina while HHC-SPK uses biologically derived hydrocarbons such as algae. Each of these different feedstocks and pathways have varying feed conversion rates and product slates and there is significant research underway to maximize feed conversion. The exhibit below summarizes conversion rates and product slates of key SAF pathways.
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