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India has put forward a proposal to exclude food crops, including corn, soybeans, and palm oil, from being used as feedstocks for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). This move is designed to mitigate potential conflicts between the aviation industry's energy needs and the nation's food security. Detailed within the draft National Policy on Sustainable Aviation Fuel, these restrictions aim to ensure that the scale-up of SAF production does not compromise food supplies or trigger inflation in food prices. Additionally, the draft suggests barring feedstocks linked to deforestation, biodiversity degradation, and unauthorized genetically modified organisms.
Under the proposed framework, the Indian government intends to prioritize non-food feedstocks such as used cooking oil (UCO), animal fats, and agricultural residues. However, sugarcane derivatives, including molasses, cane syrup, and surplus sugar, will remain eligible for the alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) fuel production pathway. To ensure compliance with land-use and sustainability standards, the policy envisions a robust traceability mechanism. This would involve geo-tagging individual feedstock batches and verifying their origins through satellite imagery. This strategy indicates a tactical pivot away from the model used in India's ethanol blending program, which has increasingly leaned on corn and surplus rice.
Furthermore, the draft policy outlines a fixed procurement price mechanism, with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas set to determine prices every six or twelve months based on production costs and guaranteed margins. To bridge the gap between procurement costs and market-linked rates, oil marketing companies may receive government subsidies. India has set ambitious SAF blending targets for international flights, starting at 1% in 2027, rising to 2% in 2028, and reaching 5% by 2030, with a potential stretch goal of 7.5% by 2035. To support this transition, the government is considering financial incentives covering up to 30% of capital expenditure for new SAF production plants. With an annual biomass potential of 750 million tonnes and projected SAF production of 8–10 million tonnes by 2040, the sector could require investments totaling $70–85 billion. These proposals remain subject to revision before they are finalized.
Source: Indian Aviation News Net