Taking stock of the SAF technology stack

opinion

by Fayaz Hussain

May 11, 2026

De-risking sustainable aviation fuel technology stack can be daunting.

But how do you address this challenge? Do you spread it across multiple players, make the technology more feedstock agnostic or show that it works at multiple sites across regions?

Johnson Matthey is trying to solve this problem by taking a more hybrid approach.

The idea behind de-risking tech is simple: no single company should carry the entire technology exposure for a SAF plant alone. Johnson Matthey has assembled what it calls the SAF Alliance, a coalition involving Honeywell UOP, Samsung E&A and gasification specialist GIDARA Energy.

“What we’re trying to do is make it very easy for our customers to work with one partner – one group of companies represented by Samsung – making sure that it’s a kind of one-stop shop for their SAF facilities,” says Maurits van Tol, CEO of Johnson Matthey’s Catalyst Technology division. “De-risking a big project means it’s easier to get bank loans at lower interest rates, easier to insure. De-risking a big project always helps the customer.”

The rationale behind this is hard to argue with. Our data shows more than 150 SAF projects are still stuck in planning phases, yet to reach final investment decision (FID).

Central to Johnson Matthey’s pitch is feedstock flexibility through its Fischer-Tropsch CANS technology. Van Tol calls it feedstock agnostic, capable of processing municipal solid waste, captured CO2 and agricultural residues from countries as varied as India, Uruguay and the USA.

The most prominent example is DG Fuels in the US, pursuing a “design once, build many times” model that replicates SAF units wherever feedstock is cheapest and most abundant.

In India, where stubble burning around Delhi has become a political flashpoint, van Tol sees the same technology offering a triple dividend: additional farm income, reduced air pollution and lower kerosene imports.

“It goes beyond just the economic production of SAF. There are many important collateral benefits, and that is how more customers and countries are looking at our technology,” he says.

This alliance to de-risk projects works in practice as well. Van Tol says Johnson Matthey recommends GIDARA Energy to customers. But this is not exclusive. “If our customers have good experience converting their raw materials with another gasification company, that’s fine. We can work with those as well,” van Tol adds.

The plug-and-play flexibility reduces the perception of lock-in, which matters when lenders and insurers are scrutinising every link in the chain.

For Johnson Matthey, the coalition model is its answer to all the above – a structure designed not just to build SAF plants, but to make them financeable.