This episode of the SAF Podcast welcomes Julia Reinaud from Breakthrough Energy to discuss how sustainable aviation fuel fits into Europe's renewable energy landscape. Julia shares insights from her extensive background in climate policy and energy innovation, explaining Breakthrough Energy's mission, since its founding in 2015 on the back of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, to accelerate the clean energy transition through its network of investment vehicles, policy efforts, and philanthropic initiatives.

The conversation explores the critical challenges facing the SAF industry, particularly for e-SAF (synthetic fuels) development in Europe. Julia highlights Project SkyPower, an initiative bringing together over 50 organizations to unlock final investment decisions for commercial-scale e-SAF projects. She discusses the importance of bankable offtake agreements, regulatory certainty, and innovative financial mechanisms to bridge the "green premium" gap.

Julia offers valuable perspective on how public-private partnerships can drive progress, citing Breakthrough Energy's collaboration with the European Investment Bank and European Commission. She emphasizes the urgent timeline for meeting 2030 mandates, noting that Europe needs 600 kilotons of e-SAF annually but only has 300 kilotons of capacity on track to be operational by then.

This episode provides crucial insights into policy alignment challenges, technology development pathways, and the systemic changes needed to scale sustainable aviation fuels and meet ambitious climate targets in Europe and beyond.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out our previous discussion with Matteo Mirolo during his time at Transport and Environment: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2202964/episodes/13415579

This week Oscar speaks with Alexei Beltyukov, Universal Fuel Technologies, a former medical doctor turned energy entrepreneur, who is now working on scaling the availability of sustainable aviation fuel.

Unifuel’s innovative Flexiforming process allows existing petroleum infrastructure—hydrotreaters and reformers—to be repurposed for SAF production, slashing capital expenditures by up to 75%. This drop-in solution not only reduces costs but also enhances feedstock and product flexibility, ensuring long-term economic viability for refineries transitioning to renewables. Particularly interesting is their approach to working with traditional HEFA and Fischer-Tropsch processes, offering solutions to convert their by-products into valuable aromatic components for SAF.

Uncover the intricacies behind the ASTM certification process for renewable jet fuel and why it's a critical step toward achieving a fully fungible, drop-in SAF. This episode sheds light on how simplifying production processes and understanding blending limits are not just technical hurdles but pivotal opportunities for investors and airlines, potentially reshaping the industry's future.

The discussion concludes with insights into regional differences in SAF adoption, and observations on the balance between gradual transition pathways against more aggressive transition strategies. Exploring how these differing strategies prove more effective than immediate wholesale changes in refinery operations, or slow long term development.

If you enjoy this discussion, check out our recent episode with Gorka Penalva, Exolum about the requirement to increase the focus on ensuring the supply chain is ready for increased SAF production: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2202964/episodes/16525321

In the second episode of The SAF Podcast, we delve into the critical yet often overlooked logistics and supply chain challenges facing the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry with Gorka Penalva from Exolum, a leading pipeline and storage infrastructure company.

With nearly 90 years of experience in hydrocarbon logistics and over 6,000 kilometers of pipeline across Spain and the UK, Exolum brings unique expertise to the SAF transportation discussion.

Gorka highlights the urgent need for investment in import logistics and blending infrastructure, particularly as SAF production projects aren't expected to come online until the 2030s and beyond. He emphasizes the importance of creating efficient import systems to meet mandates in the interim, while making airports more competitive through optimized logistics costs.

The conversation explores the environmental benefits of pipeline transport versus road freight, with Gorka revealing that moving product through their pipeline network from Avonmouth to Immingham saves as much CO2 as a flight to New York. We also discuss the technical challenges of SAF blending, including its impact on pipeline infrastructure and engine components, and how Exolum's experience in sophisticated fuel blending positions them to handle these challenges.

The episode concludes with insights into regional differences in SAF adoption, the implications of book and claim systems on physical infrastructure development, and the broader challenges of scaling SAF logistics to meet both growing aviation demand and increasing SAF mandates globally.

If you enjoyed this catch our previous discussion with CR Sincock, Avfuel discussing business aviation supply logistics and expanding capacity across the US: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2202964/episodes/16057604