NREL – Sustainable Aviation Fuel, 2024

Biofuels, specifically sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), are essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the aviation sector, which accounted for 10% of domestic transportation emissions and 3% of total U.S. GHG emissions before COVID-19. The U.S. government has issued a SAF Grand Challenge to increase domestic production to 3 billion gallons by 2030 and further to 35 billion gallons by 2050, with a 50% reduction in life cycle GHG emissions. The report assesses the challenges and opportunities in meeting these targets through various pathways like HEFA, FT, ATJ, and PTJ. Key points include the need for RD for medium and heavy-duty vehicles and SAF for commercial aviation, demand for SAF expected to grow, policy incentives required for SAF production, and the importance of global consensus on SAF criteria. Challenges include feedstock availability, overlapping jet and diesel fractions in the HEFA pathway, transportation limitations for SAF blendstock, and project permitting obstacles. Mitigation strategies include supplier investment in projects and alternative logistics models. Additionally, constraints on the existing fuels transportation infrastructure may necessitate local SAF production near airports.