Tucked away in an industrial property in Singapore’s Tuas district is the world’s largest refinery for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), the place natural waste merchandise like used cooking oil and animal fat are transformed into vitality to energy airplanes.
Built by Finnish fuel producer Neste in 2010, the facility underwent a $1.9 billion enlargement in 2019. Reopened in 2023, it now produces as much as one million tonnes of SAF yearly. Most of Singapore’s sustainable jet fuel is exported to Australia and Europe, however Neste government Mario Mifsud says Asia is the “next big frontier” for SAF.
“Asian governments are now making regulatory commitments to SAF,” Mifsud, who oversees the agency’s gross sales and buying and selling in renewable fuels for the EMEA and APAC areas, informed Fortune. “We’ve seen this in Europe—one or two countries start, and other countries will follow.”
In November, Singapore mandated that, by 2026, SAF make up 1% of all jet fuel used at its Changi and Seletar airports, with additional plans to boost the quota to five% by 2030, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s purpose to have net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
“The 1% target doesn’t seem like a massive goal, but it will start the ball rolling,” Mifsud explains. “Neighboring countries will look and follow.”
Thailand additionally plans to disclose nationwide SAF requirements this yr. Last July, nationwide service Bangkok Air started utilizing a 1% SAF mix final July, slicing about 128 kilograms of carbon emissions per flight. (On common, flying from London to New York generates about 493 kilograms of carbon per passenger, in accordance with German nonprofit Atmosfair.)
Last May, South Korea grew to become considered one of the first international locations in Asia to mandate SAF on worldwide flights, with the ruling slated to kick in by 2027. The nation goals to scale up the proportion of SAF to between 7% and 10% by 2035.
Globally, Europe leads in SAF adoption, with the area’s 2025 ReFuelEU coverage mandating a 2% SAF mix. (The EU has a 70% SAF mandate which can kick in by 2050.)
SAF has been a method that the carbon-intensive aviation trade—accountable for 2.5% of world emissions—has tried to go green. Now, with governments getting critical about pushing airways to make use of sustainable fuel, the trade could lastly be beginning to get off the floor.
Ramping up manufacturing
Demand for SAF in Southeast Asia is projected to develop from 15,000 barrels per day in 2030 to over 700,000 barrels a day by 2025, in accordance with the ASEAN SAF 2050 Outlook report. Production is prone to surge too, with ASEAN projecting day by day manufacturing as excessive as 8.5 million barrels of SAF per day.
On Jan. 26, Hong Kong-based vitality agency EcoCeres opened Malaysia’s first commercial-scale SAF manufacturing facility in the metropolis of Johor Bahru, simply throughout the border from Singapore. It can produce as much as 420,000 metric tonnes of SAF every year.
During the launch of EcoCeres’ Tanjung Langsat plant, Noraini binti Ahmad, Malaysia’s minister of plantation and commodities, mentioned Malaysia would quickly have its personal SAF targets.
“Under the National Energy Transition Roadmap, an initial SAF blending target of 1% is important to create demand and support market growth,” Noriaini mentioned. “This plan reflects our strategy to position Malaysia’s commodity sector as a responsible player in the global energy transition, and by using certified waste-based biomass, we are adding value to our resources, strengthening supply chains and supporting higher value downstream activities.”
The Johor plant is EcoCeres’ second, following its manufacturing facility in China’s Jiangsu province, which generates 350,000 metric tonnes of SAF per yr.
Matti Lievonen, the CEO of EcoCeres, mentioned the Malaysia plant marks the agency’s first step to increasing internationally. “This place in Johor is excellent, because you have feedstock from Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, a really good seaway to pop out deliveries and a strong workforce in Malaysia.”
Scaling up
Aviation accounts for roughly 2.5% of world carbon emissions, but methods to decarbonize the sector are nonetheless in the stage of improvement and are unfeasible for long-haul flights.
Electric aviation, for instance, may fit for solely very quick journeys, as it’s constrained by the vitality storage capability of batteries. (Jet fuel holds 30 occasions extra vitality per kg than the most superior lithium-ion battery.)
An absence of feedstock is additionally holding again SAF manufacturing. The International Energy Agency is urging trade gamers to discover various feedstock sources other than used cooking oil and animal fat.
“Renewable fuels are very much at the start-up phase,” Mifsud of Neste says. “When you’re in oil and gas, you drill a well and get your oil out—it’s very simple. But when you’re in renewable fuels, the collection of waste materials brings significant complexity.”
