CHICAGO: Asia is likely to see more plants dedicated for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the future as the region moves into adopting greener jet fuel.
Malaysia is among the countries that will be on its way to decarbonisation if more plants for SAF are built here.
"Constructing the plants to produce SAF is a huge way to help decarbonise and we have licenced one project already in Malaysia," Honeywell UOP's Sustainable Technology Solutions senior business leader Kevin O'Neil said.
"Right now it is about to hit final investment decision so it should get built in the next two years to produce SAF," he told reporters at Honeywell Global Sustainability Week here this week.
On a global scale, O'Neil said the development for SAF generally costs more which may slow down the take up at initial stages as investors may need certainty on the outcome of sustainable fuel on the industry.
"The technology exists, it is just a matter of the project getting approvals and getting built. A lot of its investors do not want to go for it so quickly if there is uncertainty on regulatory and if they are not sure about the long term incentives.
"Maybe the incentives are good today or two or three more years but what about in five or 10 years? So if they are not sure, they do not want to make the investment," he said.
Honeywell is trying to drive down the cost for SAF with its technology improvements.
O'Neil also noted that it is vital to find alternative feedstocks to produce advanced biofuels and SAF to meet global targets.
Carbon dioxide and biomass are the feedstocks that have huge opportunities to be converted to efficient jet fuel.
"Biomass is another area where very little of it is used to produce fuel but I think there is around 1.4 billion tonnes of iomass produced globally that is not used. that is huge quantity that can be converted to fuels," he said.
