Brazil to lift suspension on UCO imports for SAF

Brazil’s government is planning to lift the current ban on used cooking oil (UCO) exclusively for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production, according to reports attributing Brazilian government representatives.

The country currently has a moratorium of UCO imports labelling them as solid waste. The country has well-established feedstock supply chain from second-generation crops which predominantly includes ethanol owing to country’s strong sugarcane production.

Reports say the government will likely announce UCO import quotas which is currently being discussed.

While UCO remains key feedstock for SAF production through the HEFA pathways around the world, Brazilian policymakers are stressing the need to utilise domestic feedstocks such as ethanol.

However, the progress on scaling the ethanol-to-jet technologies remains low and price premium of AtJ SAF over HEFA means the technology needs to achieve economies of scale before it can begin delivering SAF at lower prices.

It seems that until then, Brazil’s government is working on alternative pathways such as HEFA by allowing UCO imports to kickstart co-processing at existing refineries.