On June 9-11, industry experts in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable diesel and biodiesel convened in Omaha, Nebraska, for the 2025 Sustainable Fuels Summit. &nbsp;SFS’s nine breakout panels across the three-day conference explored various angles within the SAF conversation, focusing on policy shifts, technological progress, the potential of various feedstocks, market growth and more, one month prior to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's landing on President Trump’s desk.A Case for Used Cooking Oil&nbsp; During panel “Exploring Market Trends and Feedstock Opportunities in Biofuels,” Mariajose Parra, U.S. biofuels senior market reporter at S&amp;P Global Commodity Insights, focused her sights on used cooking oil (UCO) in her presentation, “Used Cooking Oil: Market Insights, Pricing Trends, and Opportunities in Biofuels.”Vegetable oil and fats for food use, Parra explained, have three major outlets: households, at 35%; restaurants, at 35%; and food processors, at 30%. “[For] these last two, it’s easier to collect UCO because of the volume per location,” she said. Restaurants contribute 30% of the collected UCO, and food processors contribute another 60%.&nbsp;Leading the UCO exportation charge are China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Canada, Parra said. China and Indonesia are currently trying to shift that focus to domestic usage. “China, in December 2024, terminated the export tax rebate, which was 13%. And in Indonesia, there’s a limitation on the UCO exports because they want to reach their B40 mandate,” she explained.&nbsp;In the U.S., Parra acknowledged the overwhelming uncertainty surrounding policy and tariffs. “In 2024, we had the [biodiesel] Blender’s Tax Credit that was $1 per gallon, no matter the carbon intensity (CI). It ended in December, and we saw this huge drop [in incentive amounts] in January because of the change to the Clean Fuel Production Credit.”May 2025 brought the Trump Administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its proposed changes to the 45Z draft through the House of Representatives, as well as the transition to the CFPC. Key changes included the 45Z credit’s extension to 2031, the exclusion of indirect land use change (ILUC) into the calculation of lifecycle emissions of eligible fuels, and the decision that only North American feedstocks are eligible for the credit stack. ILUC’s exclusion holds the potential to raise the 45Z credit from 15 cents per gallon to 50 cents per gallon, incentivizing vegetable oil use for renewable diesel and SAF.As for renewable volume obligations (RVOs) under the RFS, Parra stressed the challenges involved in meeting RVOs without imported feedstocks. “Even with 5 billion gallons, the amount of feedstock we’re going to need for that is around 40 billion pounds," she said. “And we can’t do that just with domestic feedstock—we also need the imports.” The need for imports is further stressed by the steep decline in China-to-U.S. UCO imports in the past year. In the first quarter of last year, 47% of China’s total UCO exports went to the U.S. and 23% to Europe; this year, those percentages have reversed.Hindsight is 20/20, and with the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill, including the extension of the 45Z credit, the exclusion of the ILUC and the shift from SAF’s $1.75-per-gallon credit to $1 per gallon with an emphasis on domestic feedstock, U.S.-derived UCO is looking promising.Strategies for SAF&nbsp; Project Director with the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) Timothy Hughes presented during a later panel titled “Strategies for SAF Market Growth, Investment and Deployment.” His presentation, “The Promise, Progress &amp; Potential of Sustainable Aviation Fuels,” took on a voice of humor as he spoke to the present and future of SAF.CAAFI, established in 2006, aims to develop a drop-in jet fuel with significant environmental benefit at a similar cost to fossil jet fuel without sacrificing safety and performance, Hughes explained. Success is already growing from this goal, he said, with 69 airports regularly supplied with SAF, $45 billion in current purchase agreements for SAF by airlines, and 11 approved pathways for SAF production, including three coprocessing approvals, Hughes noted.SAF, or synthetic aviation turbine fuel, “has to meet all the different chemical characteristics of jet fuel,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is come up with a set of carbon chains in that mid-range and work in a jet engine just like the fossil replacement would. It’s taking some technical expertise to make that work, but once that fuel is produced, it performs very well.”The most prominent SAF production pathways involve hydrogenation, Hughes explained, but alcohol-to-jet has a strong hand in the game as well. Coprocessing also offers incentives for advancements in technology. “Could we use intermediates, such as a biocrude or something else, and blend it in with the existing refining capacity to produce those fuels?” Hughes questioned. “Those technologies are continuing to evolve.”The conversation around SAF, Hughes said, takes two forms. “Just a couple of weeks ago, Enerkem in Canada filed for bankruptcy; in the same week, the announcement that Infinium received investment for a project in west Texas [was released]. And so, we see both happening: you know, companies failing, but also investment.”&nbsp;What seems to be a barrier to investors entering the SAF conversation, Hughes explained, is the cost of production. But, considering all the benefits it creates, he emphasized his confidence in the industry. &nbsp;“We’re preserving the environment; we’re creating new opportunities in rural America. We’re also extending the availability of those resources—at some point, we have a finite supply of available fossil energy ... the industry has a bright future, I really feel like it does, but we have to look at it like a business and we have to make business decisions,” he said. Implementing biofuels not only improves the environmental impact of fossil-heavy industries; it offers such benefits without negatively impacting the broader food supply, going so far as to provide for the livestock sector.In Hughes’ eyes, the SAF industry is set up for innovation and success. From universities in Illinois and Minnesota working with pennycress, a seed with an oil content of 30%, to opening markets for woody residue to be used for fuel production and forest management, there’s no shortage of opportunity.Introducing Ethanol&nbsp; In panel “Ethanol Pathways to Achieve Sustainable Aviation Goals,” Shrikant Rathi, executive director of Praj Industries Limited, spoke to ethanol’s potential as a SAF feedstock in his presentation, “Ethanol as a Feedstock for Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Unlocking New Market Opportunities.”Praj, a leading bioprocessing technology company with four manufacturing facilities, over 90 research scientists and a 40% repeat customer rate, is committed to advancing American biofuels, Rathi said. The aviation sector, Rathi explained, is one of the hardest industries to fully decarbonize, from its CO2 emissions to contrails. For this reason, ethanol-produced SAF is growing increasingly attractive.Policy leads the shift toward U.S. SAF integration, Rathi said, including the since-altered 45Z CFPC, California’s LCFS and the Renewable Fuel Standard. “Together, the policies form a mutually reinforcing ecosystem. U.S. ethanol producers are standing at the age of a major opportunity,” he continued.Ethanol, Rathi explained, is presenting itself as a key feedstock for SAF production. “First, ethanol has a well-established production base, especially in the U.S., Brazil [and] parts of Asia ... When converted through the ATJ [alcohol-to-jet] pathway, ethanol-based SAF can offer significant GHG reduction, especially if the ethanol used stronger, lower-CI feedstocks like corn with carbon sequestration or decarbonization technologies.“The ethanol to SAF pathway is also refining compatible," Rathi continued. It fits into existing infrastructure and produces a true drop-in fuel, meeting ASTM jet specifications. Compatibility lowers the barrier to adoption across airports and airlines." &nbsp;Ethanol’s scalability and potential benefits to boost rural economies also contribute to its potential use for SAF production, according to Rathi.Challenges, including CapEx, competing ethanol-based projects and the limited number of commercial-scale references on end-to-end production, present barriers to utilizing ethanol for SAF production, but Rathi argued that each challenge could be addressed. Modular designs and partnerships with leading technologists would address upfront conversion costs; across-the-board investments in pilot projects and reference validations could assist in building confidence in ethanol-based SAF production; and an increase in alternative feedstocks and market studies on where ethanol’s most significant decarbonization value lands would allow for delegation of ethanol resources.&nbsp;What makes ethanol so attractive economically, explained Rathi, is the ability to lower the CI of the ethanol itself. “Of course, there are two requirements. To be qualified for SAF, one [requirement] is the purity of the ethanol,” he said. "But the major requirement—particularly in the context of the U.S.—is the reduction of the carbon intensity for the production of the ethanol process.” By lowering ethanol’s carbon intensity, SAF producers utilizing ethanol as a feedstock could achieve the highest credit revenue. To lower this intensity, producers could invest in carbon capture and utilization, biomass boilers and waste heat recycling, among others.&nbsp;Ethanol’s ability to serve as a drop-in feedstock into existing infrastructure and dual impact of environmental sustainability and energy independence opens an array of doors for the SAF industry. The hard part? Choosing which door to walk through first. Author: Caitlin Scheresky&nbsp; Junior Staff Writer, SAF Magazine&nbsp;&nbsp; caitlin.scheresky@bbiinternational.com

2025-09-02 - Sky’s the Limit (SAF Magazine)

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Colocated with the 2025 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo, this year’s Sustainable Fuels 
Summit offered key insights into future SAF markets, feedstocks and opportunities.

Sky’s the Limit

Sky’s the Limit

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Related Stories

EIA: Biofuel capacity, feedstock consumption expand in June

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Sky’s the Limit