India gets ready for SAF mandate

India’s government is committed to developing a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate, delegates heard at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) aviation energy forum in New Delhi.

India’s civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal said that his ministry and the petroleum and natural gas ministry are jointly working to mandate a certain percentage of blending of SAF with jet fuel.

This point was echoed by other panel speakers, including biofuel producer Lanzatech’s director of business development and government relations Preeti Jain, who noted that there are feedstock opportunities in India, such as by using agricultural residue for ethanol production, but stressed the importance of having supportive policies and regulations.

Several SAF development and research projects are under way in India, although the lack of supportive regulations has hindered bringing commercial production on stream.

Jain also announced in a separate session at the Iata forum that the company’s subsidiary Lanzajet signed a statement of intent with state-controlled refiner IOC last month to jointly explore producing alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) sustainable aviation fuel in India.

Other continuing projects include research between a consortium of five aircraft manufacturers and operators, along with an agreement between a group of Indian airlines and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Indian Institute of Petroleum.

IOC previously also signed an initial deal to boost production capacity for AtJ SAF with another biotechnology provider Praj Industries, along with biodiesel, ethanol and compressed biogas.

Delhi currently has no SAF mandate or targets, although it has in place a target for blending 20pc ethanol in on-road gasoline by 2025-26, which oil minister Hardeep Puri suggested on 14 November it may hit ahead of schedule.