SAF Policy Dialogue Series for Net-Zero Aviation

19 Jan 2026

I thank the Sustainable Aviation fuel association for organising an online dialogue to discuss challenges and opportunities in India SAF market as the nation moves towards a formal policy to achieve net zero emissions by 2070.

The current strategy is to focus on waste oil (to produce HEFA, Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids) agricultural waste (available in such huge quantity that it's easily capable of satisfying fuel needs for aviation ,currently at 9.9MMT) and other renewable feedstocks such as alcohol derived from food waste.

In the short to mid term focussing on heterogenous feedstock could accelerate the SAF production and adoption but there are a couple of challenges. Aviation consumes a small percentage of total fuel use. Using agricultural and food waste as feed stock could meet the demand of aviation but not of the entire transport sector (~230 MMT). The risk is that if industries are dependent upon these feedstocks it will be difficult to scale it to other transport sectors that can't be sustained by them.

In the long run Direct air captured CO2 as a carbon source and hydrogen as a feed stock in Fischer tropsch offer better prospects by enabling production of electrofuels. The best case scenario would be to switch to hydrogen but that would need changes in engine design.

However the crucial advantage of the Fischer tropsch process is the fact that it can be used to create platform chemicals whose applications go beyond just fuels. It is important to take that into consideration as policy is framed for sustainable fuels.

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Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Materials science/International relations/Partnerships

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Akshat Jiwan Sharma

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