Southeast Asia to play significant role in SAF production but lacks policies, cooperation: Boeing

Southeast Asia is expected to play the most significant role in sustainable aviation fuel production globally, but the region currently lacks policies and cooperation to tap this potential, Boeing's APAC Regional Sustainability Director Robert Boyd told S&P Global Commodity Insights.

"Southeast Asia, particularly, is getting a clearer understanding of just how much potential there is and once you start to understand that well, then you go to the next steps, so really having serious discussions with policymakers to get the full supply chain together," Boyd said in an interview on the sidelines of the MyAero Sustainable Aviation Symposium in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the week started July 14.

Boeing is working on a study with the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials on sustainable feedstock production in Southeast Asia, with results expected to be ready by end-August, he added.

The region is home to several major biofuel feedstock-producing countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. For instance, Malaysia is the world's second-largest vegetable oil supplier after Indonesia, while the country's palm oil annual output of around 19 million mt makes it the world's third-largest vegetable oil producer.

"HEFA's very familiar here. So, the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids and the fat oils and greases, we know that there's a substantial amount of that. Particularly in Southeast Asia, Malaysia included, has great potential on the HEFA fuels," Boyd said at the conference.

The HEFA process is an established production pathway for SAF, which involves refining vegetable oils, animal fats or used cooking oils using hydrogen. It is approved for use as an aviation fuel under ASTM standards with a maximum blend ratio of 50%.

Despite the abundance of palm oil and its derivatives in Southeast Asia, the wider market remains apprehensive on palm-linked SAF due to concerns over unsustainable practices in its production process, even though such SAF can be accepted under CORSIA guidelines.

"Any producer, whatever your feedstock is, what you need to do is use the sustainability organizations to come and demonstrate that the feedstock you have complies with what's going to be expected by airlines," said Boyd.

Policy push

Although Asia lacks a regional mandate or incentive program to drive SAF adoption, like in Europe and the US, the growing number of countries adopting SAF policies in the region have been encouraging, said Boyd.

Singapore had introduced its SAF mandate earlier this year and the city-state aims to uplift 1% SAF in 2026, with plans to raise this to 3%-5% by 2030. Singapore's Civil Aviation Authority will centrally procure the SAF used for the mandate, which will be funded from levies collected from air travelers.

"Just by doing that, it has stimulated more discussion and we would certainly encourage all of the countries in this area to be having these active discussions together, because if they can think about the policy solutions collectively, you will get a better result than if each one goes off and does their own thing," he added.

Others like Malaysia has established a SAF blending mandate at 1%, with plans to hit 47% by 2050, according to its National Energy Transition Roadmap, while Indonesia is expected unveil its SAF roadmap and action plan later this year.

Boeing's green ambitions

Amid a turbulent year so far with production delays, regulatory scrutiny and investigations, as well as inferior performance on the stock market, Boyd said Boeing still remains committed to its sustainability roadmap.

"They're not connected ... For the green goals, we're making great progress this year."

The company had agreed to buy over 220,000 barrels (9.4 million gallons) of blended SAF this year, which marked its largest annual purchase of the greener aviation fuel. The purchased volume also makes up about 20% of Boeing's fuel use for the year, said Boyd.

The company is committed to deliver commercial planes that can run on pure SAF by 2030, he added.

For now, only 50% SAF blends are allowed as aromatics in conventional jet fuel allow seals to swell in engines at higher altitudes, which prevent fuel leaks.

The International Air Transport Association expects around 27% of all potential renewable fuel production capacity available in 2030 to be SAF for the global aviation sector to achieve a 5% emissions reduction by the same year. IATA estimates that SAF could contribute around 65% in emissions reduction required by the global aviation sector to meet its 2050 net-zero target.