Japan's gas firm Iwatani has signed an agreement to procure used cooking oil (UCO) as feedstock for a joint venture Saffaire Sky Energy's sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant, the country's first large-scale SAF production facility.
Iwatani will procure UCO for domestic SAF-producing venture Saffaire Sky Energy — jointly launched by refiner Cosmo Oil, engineering firm JGC and biodiesel producer Revo International — the companies announced on 4 April.
Iwatani aims to secure more UCO suppliers from all over the country by taking advantage of its network of 3.3mn households of LPG customers and the network built through the company's industrial gas and energy projects. Revo will collect UCO from these suppliers and Saffaire will use it as feedstock to produce SAF at its SAF plant at Cosmo's Sakai refinery in Osaka.
Construction of the SAF plant was completed in December 2024, with a production capacity of around 30,000 kilolitres/yr.
The firms plan to start delivering the SAF produced at the plant this month. Cosmo has announced that the company will deliver the SAF to domestic airlines Japan Airlines (JAL), All Nippon Airways (ANA), the US' Delta Air Lines and German logistics group DHL Express.
