Federal Agencies Release Progress Report on Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge Initiative

The U.S. Departments of Energy, Transportation, and Agriculture on Jan. 13 released the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge 2021-2024 Progress Report. The report highlights the Biden Administration’s historic efforts to build a flourishing bioeconomy and addresses the goals set forth in the SAF Grand Challenge. SAF is an alternative to petroleum jet fuel and is formed from agricultural and waste feedstock and is utilized in blends with petroleum jet fuel. Funding for SAF has risen due to federal tax credits, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard, and state initiatives and tax incentives encouraging the use of SAF.

Since its announcement in September 2021, the SAF Grand Challenge has had a significant impact in accelerating the adoption and growth of SAF as a primary strategy in aviation decarbonization. Through a memorandum of understanding among the departments, a governmentwide effort including the U.S. Department of Défense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is helping to drive innovation that lowers cost, improves sustainability, and increases production and utilization of SAF.

The progress report is built upon the SAF Grand Challenge roadmap, which intends to increase SAF production to lower greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent, produce three billion gallons of SAF by 2030 and support 100 percent of domestic aviation fuel demand by 2050. Moreover, the progress report outlines the baselines and metrics development toward these goals.  Federal agencies have made significant progress in increasing U.S. SAF production by issuing new funding initiatives and opportunities, providing technical and expertise support to industry, increasing interagency relationships, and providing data, analysis and modelling to decision makers.

The report shows that the interagency working groups have published the SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap implementation Framework during 2024, developed and issued the SAF Grand Challenge: Tracking Metrics and Mid-2024 Dashboard, undertaken collaborative interagency work in line with the requirements of the roadmap action areas and coordinated interagency information sharing and stakeholder engagement to understand industry developments.