The sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) sector in the USA has made progress in the last year, World Grain wrote, citing the US government’s latest progress report.
As of September 2024, US SAF production and imports totalled 93M gallons (352M litres), up from about 25M gallons (95M litres) for all of 2023, according to the 2021/2024 Progress Report.
Domestic consumption increased from 5M gallons (19M gallons) in 2021 to 26M gallons (98M litres) in 2023.
The 2021/2024 Progress Report is based on the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge Roadmap, which aims to scale up SAF production to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 50%; produce 3bn gallons (11bn litres) of SAF by 2030; and support 100% of domestic aviation fuel demand by 2050.
Issued by the US Department of Energy, US Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration, the Progress Report also defined metrics and baselines progress toward these goals, World Grain wrote on 14 January.
US-produced SAF is predominantly based on conversion of fat, oil and grease feedstocks using the hydro-processed esters and fatty acids process (HEFA), according to the report.
Life cycle GHG reductions of 50-80% could be achieved compared to conventional jet fuel, the report said. For 2023, this corresponded to a reduction in domestic GHG emissions of 200,000 tonnes of CO2.
Based on a database of active projects, the report estimated 2.6bn-4.9bn gallons (10bn-19bn litres)/year of SAF could be produced by 2030. Most of this volume was renewable diesel capacity that could be shifted to SAF under favourable policy and market conditions.
Historically, low levels of renewable diesel production have shifted to SAF, according to the report.
The Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative had been tracking proposals for a further 2bn gallons (8bn litres)/year of domestic SAF production by the end of 2028 and had been working with 200 potential SAF producers on their efforts to scale up commercial production, World Grain wrote.
