France-based energy company TotalEnergies has used the Paris Air Show to highlight its pioneering efforts for developing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Unlike traditional aviation fuel, SAF is made from biological resources like used cooking oil. Due to its reduced lifecycle carbon emissions, it presents a way for the aviation industry to decarbonise with current aircraft. Nevertheless, scaling up production presents challenges, and TotalEnergies showcased its progress in this.
TotalEnergies’ CEO and chairman, Patrick Pouyanné, said the company was taking steps to provide the aviation industry with the SAF it will need to lower its carbon emissions, adding:
“Sustainable aviation fuels are essential to bring the air industry’s CO2 emissions down immediately. Their development is fully aligned with our approach to get to net zero, together with society. For 10 years, we have been pioneering and investing in biorefineries and developing coprocessing in our refineries.”
The European Union will require aviation fuels to incorporate 6% SAF in 2030. TotalEnergies, which also makes Total lubricant and coolant products, says it will be producing 500,000 tons of SAF ahead of this in 2028. It says over 10% of its marketed jet fuel will be SAF.
To achieve this, TotalEnergies has invested in various refineries. The most prominent is the Grandpuits biorefinery, which will be a zero-crude facility capable of producing 230,000 tons of SAF each year from 2026. Most of the feedstock for this will be provided by SARIA, which collects and recovers organic material. TotalEnergies also has multi-year contracts with airlines to supply SAF.
