SAF Reality Check Aviation's Green Gap

The 2050 net-zero carbon emissions goal is just 25 years away, yet global aviation is struggling to take off in its decarbonisation push. Against this harsh reality, India's SAF blending targets—1 per cent by 2025, 2 per cent by 2027, and 5 per cent by 2030—seem way too modest reports.

-  VISHAL DUGGAL

One of the pressing concerns in global aviation today is the extensive use of fossil fuels, which contribute significantly to emissions. A key solution to decarbonising the sector is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which is not a single substance but a range of potential alternatives to conventional jet fuel, each with its own production pathway and raw material sources, often referred to as feedstocks. These feedstocks include but are not limited to, waste vegetable oils, grains (rice and wheat straws), animal fats, greases, sugars, alcohol, biomass, municipal solid waste, agricultural and forestry residues, wet wastes, and more. Feedstock flexibility is crucial for SAF as it allows for the utilisation of regionally available resources such as low-input, sustainable biomass crops and utilised cooking oils, thus supporting local economies and reducing transportation-related emissions.

SAF is ‘sustainable’ as its feedstocks do not compete with food crops or output, nor require incremental resource usage such as water or land clearing, and more broadly, do not promote environmental challenges such as deforestation, soil productivity loss or bio-diversity loss. Whereas fossil fuels add to the overall level of carbon dioxide (CO2) by emitting carbon that had been previously locked away, SAF recycles CO2 absorbed by biomass during its lifecycle.