The U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office (AFFO), formerly known as the Bioenergy Technologies Office empowers energy companies and aviation stakeholders by supporting advances in research, development, and demonstration to overcome barriers for deployment of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). SAF made from biomass and waste resources have the potential to deliver a similar performance of petroleum-based jet fuel providing airlines supplemental fuel resources.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Initiative
The U.S. Department of Energy is working with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal government agencies to develop a comprehensive strategy for scaling up new technologies to produce SAF on a commercial scale.
Learn more about this multi-agency strategy on the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Initiative site.
Demand for jet fuel is expected to balloon over the next three decades. SAF is an additional energy resource that can help power domestic and international aviation. Photo courtesy of iStock.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Safe, Reliable, Innovative
SAF is an innovative energy resource used to power aircraft with similar properties to conventional jet fuel strengthening domestic energy security.
A Menu of Feedstocks for Producing SAF
The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2023 Billion-Ton Report: An Assessment of U.S. Renewable Carbon Resources concluded that the United States could triple its production of biomass to more than 1 billion tons per year producing an estimated 60 billion gallons of liquid biofuels. These resources include:
- Corn grain
- Oil seeds
- Algae
- Other fats, oils, and greases
- Agricultural residues
- Forestry residues
- Wood mill waste
- Municipal solid waste streams
- Wet wastes (manures, wastewater treatment sludge)
- Dedicated energy crops.
This vast resource contains enough feedstock to meet the projected fuel demand of the U.S. aviation industry, additional volumes of drop-in low biofuels for use in other modes of transportation, and produce high-value bioproducts and biochemicals.
SAF Benefits
SAF developed from a wide dispersion and variety of biomass resources will ensure that the benefits of expanded biomass production extend to both rural and urban areas. Resources, like energy crops, in a future mature market can provide more than 400 million tons of biomass per year above current uses. In addition, expanding biomass production can create new economic opportunities in agricultural and urban communities, improve the environment, and even boost aircraft performance.
Extra Revenue for Farmers
By growing biomass crops for SAF production, American farmers can earn more during off seasons by providing feedstocks to this new market, while also securing benefits for their farms like reducing nutrient losses and improving soil quality.
Environmental Services
Biomass crops can control erosion and improve water quality and quantity. They can also increase biodiversity and store carbon in the soil, which can deliver on-farm benefits and environmental benefits across the country. Producing SAF from wet wastes, like manure and sewage sludge, reduces pollution pressure on watersheds, while also keeping potent methane gas out of the atmosphere.
Biofuels Production Supports American Jobs
The United States is the largest producer of biofuels in the world, which contributes to our domestic economy, strengthens our energy supply chains, and creates jobs.
Expanding domestic SAF production can help sustain the benefits of our biofuel industry and forge new economic benefits, creating and securing employment opportunities across the country. These include jobs in:
- Feedstock production in farming communities
- Construction for building cutting-edge biorefineries
- Manufacturing for operating SAF biorefineries and infrastructure
AFFO Research Brings More SAF to the Market
SAF can be made with a variety of technologies, which use physical, biological, and chemical reactions to break down biomass and waste resources and recombine them into energy-dense hydrocarbons. Like conventional jet fuel, the blend of hydrocarbons in SAF must be tuned to achieve key properties needed to support safe, reliable aircraft operation.
In partnership with biorefiners, aviation companies, and farmers, AFFO-funded researchers are developing novel pathways for producing SAFs from biomass feedstocks that meet fuel specifications for use in existing airplanes and infrastructure. AFFO is working with laboratory and industry partners to develop new SAF pathways and fuel formulations in order to enable testing and certification required to ensure these fuels are fully compatible with existing aircraft and infrastructure.
Emerging SAFs
- SAF from wet waste, National Laboratory of the Rockies: Drawing on stores of carbon energy in cheap, widely available food waste, animal manure, and other wastes with high water content, SAF from wet waste is a supplemental energy resource.
- Bio-based polycyclic alkane SAF, Los Alamos National Laboratory: If upgraded with ultraviolet light and catalysts, bio-acetone made from a range of biomass resources, like corn stover or bioenergy crops, can yield SAF with 12% more energy than conventional jet fuel.
- SAF from carbon-rich waste gases, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: Waste carbon monoxide from industrial processes can be captured and upgraded with bacteria into ethanol for easy conversion into “alcohol-to-jet” SAF.