Sustainable aviation fuel costs must be lower, Exxon VP says

Costs are the main obstacle to increasing the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Jack Williams said on Friday (Mar 22).

SAF accounts for just 0.2 per cent of the jet fuel market but policymakers including US President Joe Biden see its adoption as a way to meet goals on lowering carbon emissions.

But SAF, a biofuel made from plant or animal materials including used cooking oil or agricultural waste, is up to five times more expensive than regular fuel.

“There’s one big negative and that’s the cost,” Williams said at a conference near Chicago. “As we think about how we want to grow SAF ... we have got to focus on how do we minimize the costs?“

Williams said demand for jet fuel could increase from 7 million barrels a day now to 12 million barrels a day in 2050. Seven million barrels a day is the same as the International Energy Agency’s estimate for all jet fuel demand. By comparison, current production of SAF is only 15.8 million gallons per year, as per US.government data.

Williams described the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act as the catalyzing action for biofuel production as well as carbon capture and storage and low carbon hydrogen.

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Biden launched a challenge in 2021 to supply at least 3 billion gallons of SAF annually by 2030.

Major airlines, including Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, have said they want to replace 10 per cent of jet fuel with SAF by 2030. REUTERS