Accelerating SAF production in the Pacific Northwest through cross-industry coalition building
Share to:
Published October 21, 2024
Est. Reading Time
The challenge of SAF
Transitioning to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is critical to decarbonizing the aviation industry and aligning with global net zero goals. To put the sector on a path to full decarbonization by 2050, the US government launched the SAF Grand Challenge, which includes an ambitious commitment to meet 100% of fuel demand with SAF by 2050 and produce 3 billion gallons of SAF per year by 2030.
However, there are sizeable barriers to making SAF a viable market alternative to conventional jet fuel. On the production side, SAF supply is limited by lack of financing, supportive policy, feedstock availability, infrastructure and transportation challenges, and gaps in technology. On the deployment side, airlines and other jet fuel users struggle to justify SAF’s green premium in an industry with razor-thin margins and cost-sensitive customers. In addition, securing offtake agreements and reworking supply chains to incorporate SAF into their distribution systems requires enormous investment of resources and capital.
Policymakers, airlines, and other value chain stakeholders have implemented a variety of solutions to help ease these barriers. For instance, policymakers are implementing federal and state tax incentives to derisk SAF, research institutions are advancing the technology readiness level (TRL) of specific feedstocks and SAF production pathways, and airlines are pre-purchasing SAF via offtakes in partnership with corporations seeking Scope 3 credits.
Limitations of current solutions
Despite these interventions, SAF accounts forless than half a percent of aviation fuel production today. The problem is that barriers and solutions vary by region – to meaningfully accelerate SAF production, solutions and interventions need to be translated into a geographic context.
Unlike fossil jet fuel, which has a relatively conventional refining process, there’s no standard recipe for scaling SAF production. Each region brings its own comparative advantages and challenges, and solutions will look different depending on the feedstocks, technologies, policies, and infrastructure available.
For instance, in some parts of the world, the predominant regional feedstock may be fats, oils, and greases, meaning HEFA is the most logical SAF production pathway, whereas regions abundant in woody biomass may use the Fisher-Tropes production pathway. The value chains for these two feedstocks and production pathways will require unique sets of solutions to scale SAF regionally.
Another problem is that current solutions usually only focus on one dimension of the SAF ecosystem. Transitioning to SAF means embracing a systems-level approach. Stakeholders must thoughtfully prioritize and map out how each pillar of systemic change – supportive policy, feedstock and energy availability, infrastructure, financing, and research and development – will impact the others.
A model for accelerating SAF production taking shape in the Pacific Northwest
To rapidly accelerate SAF production and deployment and cultivate a prosperous local sustainable aviation economy, our team is convening a cross-sector coalition of stakeholders with a shared goal of producing 1 billion gallons of SAF per year in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) by 2030.
This systems-level approach, advocated for by the SAF Grand Challenge, localizes solutions to the context of the PNW. It brings together the broadest group of stakeholders and expertise across the SAF value chain, from research and development to end user, to develop holistic solutions and build regional economic resilience for aviation.
Members of the coalition currently include or will include:
The Pacific Northwest SAF landscape
Just like any other region, the PNW ecosystem offers a unique set of opportunities. In addition to being a hub of aerospace manufacturing and technology, the PNW has a favorable policy landscape to support SAF production, ready access to renewable energy, and an existing hub of fossil fuel refineries with equipment, workforces, and distribution systems translatable to SAF. Most significantly, the PNW has an abundant supply of woody biomass, enough to support6 billion gallons of SAF production per year.
Some of the biggest challenges in the PNW are research and development and logistics. Compared to SAF production pathways like HEFA or alcohol-to-jet, the technology behind converting woody biomass to SAF is still emerging. There's also the question of transportation and logistics. How and where is woody biomass best collected, consolidated, and processed? Where should production plants be located? Should SAF be produced at the source then transported across the region, or should the feedstock be transported closer to major airports for production?
Our approach
To leverage the advantages and tackle the barriers of SAF production in the PNW and achieve its 2030 goals, the coalition has developed a 5-step framework for action, the first of which was completed in Fall of 2024:
Our team facilitated a workshop among participating coalition members to build an action plan across the 5 pillars of systemic change. Part of this workstream included understanding the interplay between pillars and the ideal sequencing within each to move the coalition’s goals forward. As mentioned above, embracing the SAF transition requires influencing all pillars of change. That said, they also need to be sequenced thoughtfully to achieve maximum impact.
For instance, in the PNW, policies like the Washington Climate Commitment Act help create a favorable market for SAF (if this isn’t the case in your region, the policy lever is a great place to start), but the technologies to support it are lacking. So, several interventions were identified to drive the policy changes needed to promote research and development of the PNW’s unique assets, including woody biomass.
Other near-term activities included engaging critically important stakeholders such as Indigenous communities and pipeline owners to participate in the coalition and conducting a landscape assessment of various feedstock sources to create an interactive map of location and ownership.
Based on the prioritization of pillars determined above, the coalition will develop policy and financing measures with specific interventions and resource requirements. This could include advocating for incentives specifically around the development of feedstock supply chains or grants for Indigenous-owned suppliers of woody biomass.
Next, the coalition will identify sources of financing and fundraising to support the implementation of initiatives.In addition to convening the coalition and facilitating the prioritization of workstreams, Earth Finance, in partnership with Snohomish County,is developing a sustainable and innovative business modelfor the coalition.
To ensure the coalition makes its intended impact, it will create a formal entity with supporting governance structures to drive the work forward. This step also includes hiring a team of industry experts to oversee day-to-day operations in service of the coalition’s 2030 goal and engage with each member.
With a robust business model and governance structure in place, the coalition can then fully leverage the power of the multi-industry coalition and its combined resources and capabilities to deliver systems-level solutions across the region.
Our team facilitated a workshop among participating coalition members to build an action plan across the 5 pillars of systemic change. Part of this workstream included understanding the interplay between pillars and the ideal sequencing within each to move the coalition’s goals forward. As mentioned above, embracing the SAF transition requires influencing all pillars of change. That said, they also need to be sequenced thoughtfully to achieve maximum impact.
For instance, in the PNW, policies like the Washington Climate Commitment Act help create a favorable market for SAF (if this isn’t the case in your region, the policy lever is a great place to start), but the technologies to support it are lacking. So, several interventions were identified to drive the policy changes needed to promote research and development of the PNW’s unique assets, including woody biomass.
Other near-term activities included engaging critically important stakeholders such as Indigenous communities and pipeline owners to participate in the coalition and conducting a landscape assessment of various feedstock sources to create an interactive map of location and ownership.
Based on the prioritization of pillars determined above, the coalition will develop policy and financing measures with specific interventions and resource requirements. This could include advocating for incentives specifically around the development of feedstock supply chains or grants for Indigenous-owned suppliers of woody biomass.
Next, the coalition will identify sources of financing and fundraising to support the implementation of initiatives.In addition to convening the coalition and facilitating the prioritization of workstreams, Earth Finance, in partnership with Snohomish County,is developing a sustainable and innovative business modelfor the coalition.
To ensure the coalition makes its intended impact, it will create a formal entity with supporting governance structures to drive the work forward. This step also includes hiring a team of industry experts to oversee day-to-day operations in service of the coalition’s 2030 goal and engage with each member.
With a robust business model and governance structure in place, the coalition can then fully leverage the power of the multi-industry coalition and its combined resources and capabilities to deliver systems-level solutions across the region.
Key wins and outcomes
This initiative will lower barriers to large-scale SAF production, enabling all members to capitalize on the SAF transition faster while delivering enormous economic value to the region. Here are a few examples of the benefits specific stakeholder groups are poised to gain from the coalition's coordinated, collaborative, and systems-level approach:
Airlines: Increased SAF availability, faster path to cost parity with fossil jet fuel, unique corporate partnership opportunities, optimized fuel infrastructure
SAF producers: Improved offtake opportunities, enhanced access to capital, coordinated access to feedstock, energy, and infrastructure, collaborative permitting processes
Airports: Improved air quality for local communities, access to next-generation sustainable aviation workforce
Corporations: Reduced cost of SAF Scope 3 credits, enhanced brand value and competitive advantage
Feedstock suppliers: Access to new customer channels and local, long-term revenue streams
Impact at a glance
14X
Economic value multiplier from every dollar invested in SAF production
7.5 million
Metric tons of carbon emissions abated by producing 1B gallons of SAF
4-6 billion
Annual SAF production (gallons) supported by PNW woody biomass
$500B+
Total predicted economic impact to the PNW region
Though still in its early stages, the coalition’s work has laid the foundation for executing its vision of rapidly accelerating SAF production in the PNW and delivering unmatched financial and environmental value to organizations across the value chain. In addition to defining a clear path to reaching its 2030 goals, with specific action plans for all 5 pillars of systemic change, the initiative has secured state-level funding and is in the process of finalizing a standalone entity to lead this work going forward.
Over the next 3 years, the PNW must radically transform policy, energy, infrastructure, and market dynamics to set the stage for a regionally competitive and thriving next-generation renewable fuel economy. Leveraging the PNW’s unique comparative advantages with a systems-level, multi-stakeholder approach, the coalition is perfectly positioned to help create a self-supporting ecosystem for SAF.
Decarbonizing the aviation industry is one of the greatest sustainability challenges of our time, but it’s also a tremendous opportunity to build economic resilience and deliver positive impact to communities, businesses, and industries. With a regional, collaborative, and ecosystems approach, your territory can meet the ambition of the SAF Grand Challenge.
Looking for a partner on your journey? Our team brings deep expertise in the policy, science, finance, and strategy landscape of the SAF ecosystem. Whether you’re taking a top-down or bottom-up approach to the SAF transition, we can help you translate the global challenges of SAF into the context of your region.
