SIA to buy sustainable aviation fuel made from waste gases at new Singapore plant
Singapore Airlines says it has signed an agreement to purchase up to 4,800 tonnes of next-generation sustainable aviation fuel from Aether Beacon over three years.
Singapore Airlines planes sit on the tarmac at Changi Airport in Singapore on Dec 8, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Edgar Su)
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SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced on Wednesday (Oct 28) that it will buy sustainable aviation fuel made from waste gases as part of its efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The airline said it signed an agreement to purchase up to 4,800 tonnes of next-generation sustainable aviation fuel from Aether Beacon over three years.
The deliveries will commence in 2028, said SIA and Aether Fuels in a joint media release on Wednesday.
The fuel will be produced using new technology that converts waste carbon feedstocks, such as biomethane and industrial waste gases, into aviation fuel.
“This offers an alternative to the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids pathway, which relies on more constrained lipid-based feedstocks,” said SIA and Aether Fuels.
Aether Fuels had said in November that this production method reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 per cent compared to conventional jet fuel.
The fuel will be produced at Project Beacon, Aether Fuels' commercial production facility which is being developed in Pulau Bukom. SIA is the first airline to buy sustainable aviation fuel from the facility and this marks its first purchase of sustainable aviation fuel made with such technology as well.
“Supporting the development and adoption of SAF (sustainable aviation fuel), and securing future supplies, are integral to SIA’s ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050,” said SIA chief sustainability officer Lee Wen Fen.
She added that the purchase demonstrated demand for new lower-carbon fuel production pathways in Singapore.
“We will continue to work with partners globally to scale SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) production, strengthen the aviation industry’s sustainability ecosystem, and support the transition to more sustainable air travel,” she said.
Plans to build Project Beacon were announced by Aether Fuels and energy and chemical solutions provider Aster in November last year.
The companies said then that the facility would produce up to 2,000 tons of fuel per year, with commercial operations beginning in 2028.
On Wednesday, SIA and Aether Fuels said the latter intended to start up its first large-scale commercial plant by 2031, with a production capacity at least 10 times greater than Beacon.
Aether Fuels CEO and co-founder Conor Madigan noted that Singapore had been chosen by his company as the site of its first commercial facility.
The country is building a strong ecosystem for aviation decarbonisation through refining and aviation infrastructure, investment support, sustainability policies and utilising its position as a global aviation hub, he said.
“This binding agreement (with SIA) is an important next step and a strong signal of committed demand from a leading global airline – exactly the type of collaboration needed to create the commercial conditions to bring new SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) pathways to scale,” he said.
SIA and its budget subsidiary Scoot are targeting using sustainable aviation fuel for 5 per cent of their total fuel requirements by 2030.
The goal is subject to global developments on the availability and adoption of such fuel, according to SIA's website.
In 2024, both airlines said they would purchase 1,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel produced by Neste in Singapore.
