SAF’s a Baldwin! Hello! We Clue You in on Why We’re Totally Following UFT’s Flexforming SAF Tech and Its Progress

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August 27, 2025

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) I read earlier today an assertion that SAF costs seven times as much as jet fuel, and it reminds me the world is still pretty clueless about SAF’s progress. As if the U.S. Navy’s $2.18-per-gallon order with AltAir back in 2016 didn’t happen. Now, with new technologies like Universal Fuel Technologies’ fascinating Flexiforming process making real advances, I’m not sure how easy it will be to get clued in. Which is why I’ve asked Cher Horowitz of Clueless fame to start us off today.

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Sustainable Aviation Fuel has to blend in perfectly before airlines let it join the table. That’s what ASTM’s D4054 process is all about — proving a new fuel can be a true drop-in replacement. Universal Fuel Technologies has just crossed that first threshold, with its Flexiforming® SAF accepted into the Clearinghouse.

This isn’t a mere paperwork shuffle. It’s the gateway to every jet engine, pipeline, and airport tank farm on the planet. No ASTM acceptance, no ticket to fly. Clearinghouse entry is the moment the new kid gets a hall pass.

From Boutique Couture to Everyday Wear

You’ve heard the number: SAF costs seven times as much as fossil jet fuel. But that’s boutique pricing — a designer label stuck on a tiny batch. The U.S. Navy proved in 2016 that scale changes everything, when AltAir delivered tens of millions of gallons at $2.18 a gallon. Secretary Ray Mabus himself made the point: with steady contracts and serious offtake, SAF can be everyday wear, not couture.

Flexiforming pushes in that direction. By re-engineering the ethanol-to-jet chemistry, it eliminates the wardrobe changes. Conventional ETJ hops from one reactor to another, compressing and refrigerating gases along the way. Flexiforming integrates dehydration, oligomerization, and alkylation in one vessel. Result: energy consumption drops by 75%, from 19 kBTU/gal to just 3. Hydrogen demand falls by a third. No precious metals in the catalyst.

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Flexiforming doesn’t just cut costs. It gets along with everyone. Ethanol, methanol, naphtha, LPG — all are welcome feeds. It can even upgrade byproducts from HEFA and Fischer–Tropsch plants into aromatic SAF. That’s key, because jet engines demand aromatics for seal compatibility. Flexiforming makes them naturally, no hydrogen detour required.

From every 1,000 units of ethanol, the process yields 490 units of SAF, plus renewable gasoline, propane, and fuel gas. Nothing wasted, everything useful.

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If all goes well, Flexiforming could be ASTM-qualified by late 2026, first as a blend component, and eventually — the endgame — as a 100% synthetic jet fuel.

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It’s been a decade in the lab, with 30 patents, more than 6,000 hours of testing, and a pilot plant in Crosby, Texas. The process already proved itself upgrading fossil naphtha before being tuned for SAF.

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Early traction includes a paid demo with a major energy company, a signed LOI for a 6,500 barrel-per-day ethanol-to-SAF plant, and negotiations with a Fischer–Tropsch partner.

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That’s the bet with Flexiforming. It doesn’t force airlines to change their engines. It doesn’t demand exotic feedstocks. It slides into the system, cuts energy costs, widens the product slate, and makes SAF look less like a boutique experiment and more like everyday gear. READ MORE MORE on Universal Fuel Technologies

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Unifuel’s 100% drop-in SAF production technology passes first test in ASTM qualification process (GreenAir)

Excerpt from GreenAir: A major step for a new patented technology that can potentially produce 100% synthetic drop-in sustainable aviation fuel from multiple renewable feedstocks has been achieved by California-based Universal Fuel Technologies (Unifuel). Ethanol-to-Jet SAF produced by the company’s Flexiforming technology has been accepted into the ASTM D4054 Clearinghouse, which supports the technical evaluation of new aviation fuels, for qualification. Acceptance requires demonstrating, by independent testing, that a fuel is not only technically credible and can be produced at a meaningful scale, but also that it has met strict quality and safety criteria. For the testing, Unifuel produced 100 litres of sample material for four different SAF pathways in a five-month pilot project. The company will now proceed with producing larger fuel samples for detailed Tier 1 and Tier 2 testing required for ASTM qualification, which it hopes can be reached by the end of 2026. READ MORE

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Texas Propane/Biopropane/Renewable Propane precursors/biointermediates pilot scale oil seed crops naphtha/bionaphtha/renewable naphtha Methanol/Biomethanol/Renewable Methanol livestock liquid petroleum gas (LPG) Jetfuel (Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)) Investing Hydrogen/Renewable Hydrogen history HEFA (Hydro-processed esters and fatty acids) fuel prices food and fuel Fischer-Tropsch/FT ethanol/bioethanol drop-in biofuels/hydrocarbons demonstration scale/unit DDGS (distiller’s dried grains with solubles) co-products BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production Biogasoline/Renewable Gasoline Bio LPG (Bio Liquid Petroleum Gas) Aviation Fuel/Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) aviation fuel (SAF) price ASTM D4054 ASTM aromatics alcohol-to-jet (ATJ)/ethanol-to-jet (ETJ) 100% SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel)

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