India and Brazil join forces for SAF
Leading biofuel producers India and Brazil issued a joint statement announcing a strategic partnership to accelerate the development and adoption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
The partnership agreement was signed by Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas of the Republic of India, Mr. Hardeep S Puri during his official visit to Brazil last week where he met Minister of Mines & Energy of the Federative Republic of Brazil Mr. Alexandre Silveira to discuss energy cooperation between the two countries.
The collaboration aims to leverage the countries’ existing infrastructure and resources to decarbonise the aviation sector.
The two countries agreed to initiate collaborative actions to resolve some of the major hurdles to SAF production, namely, feedstock-related challenges, high cost of SAF compared to other technologies, infrastructure for large-scale production and efficient waste management systems, low maturity of production pathways, etc.
The joint statement highlighted several key areas of cooperation, including leveraging ethanol production from all sources. Brazil and India are two of the world’s leading ethanol producers due to their strong agriculture base. The countries aim to leverage the feedstock to produce SAF. With already-developed agri sector, the partnership aims to promote technology exchange, joint research, and development initiatives, in order to optimize SAF production processes.
With both countries currently working to set SAF mandates on airlines, the agreement also envisions sharing of regulatory and policy experience, with a view to create frameworks that encourage investment in SAF production.
In addition, the two will also cooperate in RD&I with a view to enhance the technology readiness level of production pathways and collaborate in multilateral forums, such as ICAO, in order to promote the development of SAF.
The countries said that with common carbon reduction goals, they can benefit from combining resources, expertise, and technology to lead global transition towards lower emission aviation.