Deployment
CAAFI’s Role
CAAFI® works with fuel producers to identify specific, actionable opportunities for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) commercial deployment, including facilitating the connections between SAF producers and airlines that want to purchase SAF. CAAFI is feedstock and technology agnostic and encourages project developers to determine the most appropriate regional technology and feedstock pathways.
Current Status
CAAFI is working with fuel producers to help bridge the “Valley of Death” between SAF technology development and commercial scale production, including providing SAF development guidance, facilitating industry approval and specification of fuels under ASTM, and helping establish partnerships to develop supply chains.
Fuel Technology Maturation
One of the greatest technical challenges for a new technology is successfully scaling up from the lab bench to commercial scale production. For this reason, fuel maturation along the Fuel Readiness Level (FRL) involves sequential production scale-up from lab-scale through pilot plant, to demonstration facility, and finally to commercial-scale facilities. CAAFI has developed a series of SAF and feedstock maturation tools, including the FRL, a set of FRL exit criteria, and a fuel testing user’s guide for ASTM D4054 to help technology developers identify, understand, communicate their fuel production technology maturity, and help them understand the steps to bridging the Valley of Death for AJF. CAAFI is integrally involved helping new fuels qualify under ASTM (see our Fuel Qualification page).
CAAFI has provided fuel producers with additional guidance on achieving commercial deployment of SAF: Path to Jet Fuel Readiness and Guidance for Selling Alternative Fuels to Airlines.
Existing and Planned Production Facilities
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) deployment is underway. There are several commercial scale facilities using pathways that have been qualified under ASTM International specification D7566 for use by the aviation industry (although not all of them are currently producing SAF). Commercial SAF production in the U.S. began in 2016 with one million gallons, primarily at the World Energy facility in Paramount, CA. Since then, SAF production has grown each year and is reported on the U.S. Department of Energy SAF tracking metrics dashboard. Many other technology developers are working at demonstration and pilot scales on the path to ASTM approval and scaled-up commercial production.
The International Civil Aviation Organizaton (ICAO) maintains a tracker of SAF facilities worldwide.
Hover over a menu above to see the map of current SAF production and potential feedstocks.
Key Topics
Cost Parity
For airlines, fuel costs are a significant driver of overall operating expenses, and historically, extreme price fluctuations of crude oil (and jet fuel) have negatively impacted the aviation industry. Enabling a mature and significant SAF supply should help address the extreme variations in fuel price; however, SAF cannot currently be produced at a cost-competitive price with conventional jet fuel. Policy incentives and other programs —such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) and the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (and some additional state policies) can help with bringing down SAF selling price. Reducing SAF price is an area of significant focus across the industry.
Finance/Investments
Fuel producers face major challenges in securing capital investment to establish commercial-scale fuel production facilities due to perceived risk on the part of investors. Risk may be related to policy uncertainty, offtake/market uncertainty, feedstock availability issues, and other challenges in addition to the risks associated with the technology itself. Therefore, de-risking the supply chain is of critical importance. Tools for reducing risk to facilitate commercial-scale production facility investment can include programs such as:
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Government and government-funded research and development (R&D) programs focused on reducing technical risk (e.g., as outlined in the CAAFI Foundational Elements page).
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Government loan guarantees, such as the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program and the Dept. of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Programs to reduce investor risk.
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Federal and State incentive programs with a reliable, long-term, and predictable life span can ensure economic competitiveness for alternative fuels.
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Programs that provide payments to producers to ensure long-term production and energy security.
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Insurance tools such as crop insurance (e.g., USDA’s program for camelina) and other forms of insurance, such as insuring facility performance.
CAAFI is also working with the FAA-funded Aviation Sustainability CENTer (ASCENT) on related risk-reduction efforts focused on enabling supply chain development.
Co-products
Some producers are enhancing their economic viability by developing high-value products such as synthetic chemicals and cosmetics. Such high value products can aid in establishing the business case for also producing high volumes of alternative fuel resulting from the same processes. Both economics and sustainability. should be considered when evaluating the potential for co-product contributions to company viability. Fuel and feedstock producers may also want to consider the option of incorporating non-traditional co-products, such as environmental services, as a source of revenue. CAAFI is engaged with ASCENT researchers investigating opportunities to leverage payment programs for environmental services such as nutrient runoff reduction and water quality improvement as contributors to the economic viability of SAF operators. (see “Synergies Between Feedstock Opportunities and Environmental Performance” on our Feedstocks page).
Tools & Resources
Finance/Investment/Offtake Agreement Tools
U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) work on Aviation Fuels work on pathways
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Stochastic Techno-Economic Analysis of Alcohol-to-Jet Fuel Production
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Field to Flight: A Techno-Economic Analysis of Corn Stover to Aviation Biofuels Supply Chain
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The Costs of Production of Alternative Jet Fuel: A Harmonized Stochastic Assessment
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Environmental and Economic Assessment of Transportation Fuels from Municipal Solid Waste
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Stochastic Techno-Economic Evaluation of Cellulosic Biofuel Pathways
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Quantifying Breakeven Price Distributions in Stochastic Techno-Economic Analysis
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Biorefinery Site Selection Using a Stepwise Biogeophysical and Social Analysis
Commercialization/Deployment Opportunities
For more info on how to work with aviation end users see CAAFI’s End Users page