Southeast Asian Countries Eye Crops They Can Grow in Abundance for SAF

Recognizing the potential of Southeast Asia’s diverse feedstocks, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), in partnership with Boeing and Standard Chartered Bank, published its first study of the region’s feedstock potential. If fully utilized, it could produce 45.7 million metric tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) annually by 2050, meeting 12% of the global demand, or entirely fulfilling Southeast Asia’s own needs if not exported.

Rice husks and rice straw are identified as the most viable feedstocks, with 138.6 million tonnes available annually. This could potentially generate 9.7 tonnes of SAF per year through the Fischer-Tropsch process. Other feedstocks include cassava, sugarcane and forestry waste. Crude palm oil also has the potential to generate 4.8 tonnes of SAF annually.

RSB program director Arianna Baldo highlighted the potential of other crops such as the pongamia oil plant, which can be grown on marginal land and does not compete with food crops. However, research and literature on these plants remain scarce.

Palm oil and its residues, despite being widely available, are flagged as medium- to high risk on the sustainability scale because of land-use concerns. Palm oil is still not included on CORSIA’s positive list of waste materials or in compliance with its conservation requirements. The European Union (EU) has also banned palm oil-related products, limiting their use in SAF for European flights. There is also the problem of ensuring the credibility of palm oil-sourced SAF.

Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, promotes its use in SAF. It was the first country to refine SAF from palm oil residue and conducted a trial flight with its national airline, Garuda, in October 2023. Jakarta hopes that, together with other palm oil-producing countries like Malaysia and Colombia, it can convince international players to accept crude palm oil as a viable SAF feedstock.

Neighboring Singapore has also called on air transport regulators to take a “scientific approach” to the acceptance of palm oil-based SAF, arguing that it could help address the SAF shortage in the Asia-Pacific region.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is exploring other feedstock pathways, such as seaweed, coconuts, and fatty acids, to meet its 1% SAF target by 2027.

Baldo explained that sustainability risks related to palm oil plantations could be managed through measures like soil and water management, as well as other conservation efforts. By addressing these concerns early on with plantation owners, policymakers, and investors, it may be possible to turn high-risk feedstocks into acceptable ones.

Sophie Byron, biofuel pricing director at S&P Global Commodity Insights, noted that some regional mandates are feedstock-agnostic, which could provide more flexibility for producers compared to the EU. However, since SAF is promoted as a drop-in fuel, this introduces complexity in the supply chain and in carbon accounting downstream.

Despite these challenges, the wide variety of feedstocks and refining technologies available gives Southeast Asian countries the flexibility to choose production methods that suit their economies, potentially creating a hub-and-spoke distribution network for global consumption.

Relying on crop-based feedstocks could also expose the industry to price fluctuations caused by unpredictable weather patterns driven by climate change.

“Crop growing cycles are always at risk from weather impacts ... you can have years with bumper crops and oversupply. For agricultural commodities, weather is such an important price driver,” Byron said, adding, “Fossil fuel supply and demand economics are very different from SAF, which comes from a biogenic source. In an ideal world, we would have separate pricing mechanisms for SAF and jet fuel, but we’re just not quite there yet.”