India will launch a national sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) roadmap in the near term to provide clarity on guaranteed offtake and improve investor confidence, with a focus on the alcohol-to-jet pathway for SAF production, said Deepak Ballani, Director General of Indian Sugar and Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA).
SAF in India will be a controlled product, with prices set by the government based on the feedstock costs, Ballani said on the sidelines of the India Energy Week in Goa. He was unable to comment on when the roadmap will be published.
Ballani also said that India aims to produce 4bn litres of SAF for international flights.
India has targeted to blend 1pc SAF into jet fuel for international flights by 2027, rising to 2pc by 2028 and 5pc by 2030.
Meanwhile, he noted that biodiesel production from used cooking oil (UCO) has not been viable because of feedstock aggregation issues, and current blending of biodiesel in diesel has been less than 1pc — far short of the country's 5pc blending target for 2030.
Indian oil marketing companies are also working on blending ethanol into diesel, with trials in the preliminary stage, Ballani said. He added that India currently has the capacity to produce 32pc ethanol-blended gasoline and has reached its E20 target in 2025.
