New SAF technology could reduce reliance on vegetable oils
US-based Aether Fuels has demonstrated the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from renewable natural gas and industrial CO₂. The resulting fuel meets ASTM D7566 specifications.
The technology uses biomethane, including gas derived from landfills, together with captured carbon dioxide. This allows SAF to be produced without directly relying on vegetable oils, used cooking oil or animal fats.
The synthetic aviation fuel can be blended with conventional jet fuel at levels of up to 50% without requiring modifications to aircraft, pipelines or airport infrastructure.
The next stage will be the Project Beacon demonstration facility in Singapore, with a planned capacity of around 50 barrels per day, or about 2 thsd tons of SAF annually. The company intends to use the project to further scale up the technology.
In the longer term, such technologies could reduce the SAF market’s dependence on traditional biofuel feedstocks, including soybean, rapeseed and other vegetable oils. For now, however, the technology remains at demonstration scale, so its impact on the global vegetable oil balance is still a long-term factor.
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