Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is made from sustainable resources, such as forestry and agricultural waste and used cooking oil and can be blended with fossil jet fuel to reduce emissions.

Tata group airlines – Air India, AirAsia India and Vistara (Tata SIA Airlines), recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Institute of Petroleum to collaborate and work together on the research, development, and deployment of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), officials said as per a news report in HT.

“The MOU outlines the intent of the signatories to work together in a variety of other areas related to sustainable aviation,” an Air India spokesperson said adding the focus of the MoU is to explore Single Reactor HEFA (fuels) Technology for Drop-in liquid Sustainable Aviation and Automotive Fuel (DILSAAF). This comes two days after civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stressed on carbon neutrality.

“Civil aviation is a highly visible sector, it’s a very high-profile sector which attracts a lot of attention, but if you look at its contribution to greenhouse gases and carbon emissions…it’s very small… 2% of carbon emissions of the world,” he had said.