SAF Production, Availability and Use Continue to Rise

Experts who follow the emerging sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry say production of the environmentally friendly alternative to Jet A has grown exponentially in just a few years, and its availability is about to skyrocket.

SAF, which is made from non-petroleum renewable feedstocks such as cooking oils and agricultural waste, has the potential to reduce business aviation greenhouse gas emissions by 80% throughout its life cycle.

“It’s the one drop-in solution that gets you the most,” said Darryl Young, trip support director with Miami-based AEG Fuels. “We’re past the skepticism. It’s gaining momentum.” CLIMBING. FAST. – business aviation’s initiative aimed at helping the industry reach net-zero emissions by 2050 – sees SAF as a linchpin to achieving that goal.

Despite its higher price per gallon, due to limited availability and high production cost (half again as much as standard Jet A), SAF acceptance is on the rise, and more is becoming available as policy advances.

Globally, SAF production volumes in 2023 surpassed 600 million liters (about 158 million gallons) according to the International Air Transport Association. That’s double the 300 million liters (about 79 million gallons) produced in 2022 and six times the amount produced in 2021, said 4AIR COO Nancy Bsales.

“We will start to see more and more SAF, growing exponentially over the next five, 10, 20 years using all different feedstocks and technologies,” said Bsales.

There are “existing suppliers bringing more volume as well as new suppliers coming in,” she said, noting that more FBOs are offering SAF. Worldwide, there are 15 SAF-producing locations now – and more than that have been 100 announced. 4AIR tracks SAF availability on its website.

“The global production capacity of SAF could potentially increase 15-fold in 2024,” Bsales said. But she notes that’s still only about 1% of where the industry needs to be.

U.S. Production Increasing Dramatically

Domestically, the U.S. government’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, launched in 2021, aims to develop a comprehensive strategy to scale up new technology to produce SAF on a commercial scale.

In fact, during the three years since the challenge was announced, annual domestic production and imports of SAF have skyrocketed from 5 million gallons to 52 million gallons through the first six months of 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Putting that into perspective, 52 million gallons of SAF has the capacity to cut CO2 emissions by more than 300,000 metric tons.

Boosting SAF usage is the option to book-and-claim, a system by which operators can voluntarily buy SAF even where it’s not physically available. The price premium covers uplift of physical SAF where it available, and the voluntary buyer gets credit.

“That’s what most people are doing,” says Young, who said the use of book-and-claim is growing.

Basales agreed. “People are becoming more comfortable with it,” she said. “It’s becoming more and more common and there’s more understanding behind it.”

Keeping Book-and-Claim Honest

4AIR’s Assure SAF Registry, launched last year, helps keep book-and-claim honest, she said, guarding against the possibility of the same molecules being counted more than once. When properly accounted through registries, SAF book-and-claim empowers operators to meet their sustainability goals while balancing fuel budget constraints.

An informal poll of attendees at NBAA’s 2023 International Operators Conference (IOC) in Austin, TX, indicated that about 17% of business aircraft operators at the event had launched their own sustainability programs, Young said. That figure jumped to 47% earlier this year at IOC in Orlando, FL.

“You’ve got to do something or you’re going to get regulated unfairly and taxed unfairly,” Young said. “It’s time to show that business aviation is leading the charge.”