Insight Focus
SAF and SMF initiatives are gaining momentum globally. Canada and Brazil both advanced policies to support sustainable aviation fuel, while new projects and research highlighted the growing role of feedstocks such as corn, sugar and agricultural residues. As production expands, targeted SAF use could deliver outsized climate benefits, with just 2% of flights responsible for 80% of contrail-related warming.
With the need and desire to lower the carbon footprint of aviation and marine transportation, industry players, biofuel producers, and governments around the world are energetically driving the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and sustainable marine fuel (SMF) systems. These efforts are expected to create a major new market for ethanol produced from corn and sugar.
Canada Targets 10% SAF Use by 2030
A clear example came in August, when the Canadian government released a blueprint for the development of a sustainable aviation fuel industry in Canada. Transport Canada’s blueprint establishes a plan to meet the Aviation Climate Action Plan’s goal of 10% SAF use by 2030. Achieving that target would require an estimated 1 billion litres of SAF sourced from a combination of domestic production and international supply.
“Canada has the feedstock, refining expertise, innovation capacity and domestic airlines to create a world-leading industry that contributes to meeting its own needs and those of other jurisdictions,” Transport Canada stated in its blueprint.
Fred Ghatala, president of Advanced Biofuels Canada, welcomed the long-awaited government document. “The thing that the blueprint brings, and its most important contribution, is momentum. It signals Canadian government attention to this important issue,” he said.
Note: The maximum SAF production scenario is based on feedstock availability and expected technology readiness. The analysis suggests Canada’s domestic SAF production potential could reach up to 1.36 billion litres by 2030, with HEFA dominating near-term supply and PTL and GFT pathways becoming increasingly important by 2050. However, imports are still likely to be needed to meet long-term decarbonisation goals.
Source: Transport Canada
Brazil Signs SAF Mandate
Also in August, Brazil signed a decree regulating its National Sustainable Aviation Fuel Program, or ProBioQAV, establishing the rules for the country’s SAF emissions reduction mandate and creating what the government says is the world’s first book-and-claim mechanism incorporated into public policy.
The ProBioQAV regulation establishes rules covering SAF production, certification, commercialisation and traceability, as well as compliance with greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for Brazil’s domestic aviation sector.
Australian SAF Project to Use Sugarcane Residue
Nextchem, through its subsidiary MyRechemical, has been awarded licensing, a process design package (PDP), and engineering services by SKY Renewables Burdekin, an Australian project development company focused on SAF production, for the syngas section of Project Lion in North Queensland’s Burdekin region.
The project will use locally available sugarcane residues as feedstock to produce purified, chemical-grade syngas through the application of NX Circular Gasification technology.
The syngas will then be used for subsequent conversion into SAF and renewable diesel through third-party solutions. Once at full operational scale, Project Lion has the potential to produce up to 125,000 tonnes of SAF per year.
By using sugarcane tops and trash, residual biomass that is often burned in the field, the project demonstrates how gasification enables the transformation of agricultural residues into an intermediate feedstock for low-carbon fuels, while supporting a more sustainable use of local biomass resources.
Sugarcane waste
Fabio Fritelli, managing director of Nextchem, said: “By leveraging our gasification technology, we can support the conversion of locally available sugarcane residues into low-carbon fuels, combining circular carbon solutions with the decarbonisation needs of aviation.”
SAF at Big Airports
An August report from the independent group Clean Air Task Force (CATF) found that directing SAF to a small number of high-impact airports, rather than spreading it across the aviation network, could significantly increase the fuel’s climate and public health benefits while global supply continues to build.
The report, Maximizing the Climate Co-Benefits of Sustainable Aviation Fuel via Targeted Allocation, analysed 2024 flight activity at major US and European airports to identify where targeted SAF use would have the greatest impact.
Working with aviation climate data company Estuaire, CATF analysed 16.6 million flights at major US and European airports in 2024, examining contrail formation as well as particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions during landing and take-off.
The analysis found that just 2% of flights generate 80% of contrail-related warming, meaning a targeted approach can capture most of the climate benefit without requiring a large share of the global SAF supply, which made up just 0.7% of the jet fuel market in 2025.
Source: CATF
