China 'green' jet fuel plants push back start-up amid lack of policy

Several Chinese builders of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants are postponing start up as a lack of government policy guidance restrains them from marketing the fuel domestically or exporting it. Reuters reported last May that companies were investing more than $1b to build China's first plants to turn waste cooking oil into aviation fuel for export and for domestic demand once Beijing requires its use to cut emissions. However, Beijing has yet to announce the mandatory use of the lower-carbon fuel for the world's second-largest aviation fuel market, disappointing industry expectations. Companies were hoping that by the end of 2024 the government would issue requirements for 2% to 5% of SAF mixed with traditional jet kerosene by 2030. Privately led Tianzhou New Energy and Jinshang Environmental Protection Tech, which are each building SAF plants in southwestern Sichuan province, have pushed-back target dates for first production, company executives said. Tianzhou aims to start test operations at its plant in Weiyuan in the second half of 2025 versus an earlier target of the end of 2024, said a senior company official who asked not to be identified, citing changes in construction schedules as a factor in addition to policy uncertainty. The site is set to process 200,000 metric tons per year of used cooking oil into SAF, or about 4,300 barrels per day. Jinshang Chairman Ye Bin said the trial of its 500,000 tpy plant in Chengdu would be delayed for about three months from its original start time. "Original plan was to complete mechanical construction by the end of this year and test run the facility in (the first quarter) of 2026," Ye said.<br/>