Tokyo explores turning city waste into eco-friendly aviation fuel

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is conducting a feasibility study to produce sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, from municipal waste in the city, it said in a release April 4.

The study, which considers producing SAF from general waste in Tokyo, comes with a scope of subsidies of up to Yen 25 million ($165,297.50) per project.

"In principle, the target is general waste in Tokyo; however, if it's not possible to secure the properties and amount of general waste necessary for SAF production, business profitability, etc., after consultation with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in advance, industrial waste from inside and outside Tokyo will be considered," the release said.

The SAF targeted for production are those expected to meet SAF standard certification, such as ASTM D7566, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional jet fuels.

TMG said achieving a future commercialization scale for green aviation fuel should be technically feasible, such as hydrotreated esters and fatty acids technology, gasification or fischer-tropsch synthesis technology, alcohol-to-jet technology, microalgae technology or technology judged to be equivalent or superior to these technologies.

The scale of a mass-production plant should have a minimum waste reception capacity of 50 mt/day or more, but there is a possibility of establishing a demonstration plant with a lower scale. The locations for mass production and demonstration plants will not be limited to Tokyo, TMG added.

The Japanese government has introduced a proposal to mandate the replacement of 10% of its jet fuel demand in 2030 with neat SAF, along with plans to introduce such regulations by mid-2024.

The Indonesian and Japanese governments have also teamed up to conduct a feasibility study on large-scale waste-handling facilities, marked by the inking of a cooperation agreement in Tokyo, Japan on April 2.

The implementation arrangement was signed for a study on large-scale waste treatment facilities in the Bekasi, Karawang and Purwakarta areas. The agreement also discussed five issues, namely climate change and carbon trading; waste management, including e-waste; marine plastic and the international legally binding instrument; environmental management; and biodiversity conservation.

S&P Global Commodity Insights forecasts global SAF consumption to reach 349,000 b/d by 2030, with a further increase to 2.1 million b/d by 2050, displacing almost 24% of worldwide jet fuel demand, according to its latest SAF market outlook.

Platts, part of S&P Global, assessed SAF production cost (PFAD) in Southeast Asia up $2.55 on the day at $1,530.23/mt on April 4.