Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production and Life Cycle Assessment

The drive to decarbonise aviation has spurred intense research into sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) produced from biomass, waste streams or renewable electricity. Production pathways span biochemical routes—such as alcohol-to-jet and fermentation of sugars—and thermochemical routes, including Fischer–Tropsch synthesis of syngas from biomass and hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) from vegetable oils or waste fats. Emerging power-to-liquid approaches convert renewable hydrogen and captured CO₂ into synthetic kerosene. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the principal tool to quantify greenhouse-gas emissions, energy requirements and broader environmental impacts from “well-to-wake” or “cradle-to-grave”. Critical factors include feedstock cultivation, land-use change, processing energy and co-product allocation methods. LCA studies reveal trade-offs between carbon savings, water use and land footprint, guiding the optimisation of value chains and informing policy frameworks such as CORSIA and regional incentives. As SAF production scales up, robust LCA informs supply-chain design, supports cost reduction and ensures genuine climate benefits while highlighting the need for sustainable feedstock sourcing, technology maturity and infrastructure adaptation.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have advanced the integration of non-CO₂ effects and temporal dynamics into SAF life cycle metrics. A comprehensive analysis demonstrates that electricity-based synthetic jet fuels coupled with direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) can, in principle, enable climate-neutral aviation. However, scaling this route to match projected traffic would place unsustainable demands on renewable electricity and CO₂ storage infrastructure. The study underscores that without measures to constrain or optimise air traffic growth, even renewable synthetic fuels paired with DACCS cannot achieve net-zero aviation at scale. The findings highlight the imperative of combining fuel innovation, demand management and resource-efficient deployment to deliver genuine climate neutrality.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production and Life Cycle Assessment publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in sustainable aviation fuel production and life cycle assessment across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): Alternative fuel produced from renewable sources compatible with existing aircraft engines and infrastructure.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Methodology evaluating environmental impacts of a product or process from raw material extraction to end of life.

Fischer–Tropsch process: Thermochemical method converting syngas into liquid hydrocarbons for jet fuel.

Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA): Process converting lipids into paraffinic hydrocarbons via hydrogenation and deoxygenation.

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS): Technology capturing CO₂ from ambient air for long-term underground storage.

Induced Land Use Change (ILUC): Alterations in land cover and carbon stock resulting from feedstock cultivation for biofuel production.

References

1. Green flight paths: a catalyst for net-zero aviation by 2050. Energy & Environmental Science (2024).
2. Catalytic production of aviation jet biofuels from biomass: a review. Environmental Chemistry Letters (2025).
3. How to make climate-neutral aviation fly. Nature Communications (2023).
4. Use of Sustainable Fuels in Aviation—A Review. Energies (2022).