Taking to the Skies

(Biofuels International) ... bp believes that producing SAF through co-processing at existing refineries will help the aviation sector as it transitions to a low-carbon industry and builds dedicated and more efficient standalone units for SAF production.

Today, existing refineries can be used to co-process 5% approved renewable feedstocks alongside the crude oil streams to meet the requirements of the industry jet fuel standard ASTM D1655.

bp’s Lingen refinery in Germany is already being used to produce SAF through co-processing.

Alternatively, SAF2 produced in standalone units (which are not currently widely available) would meet ASTM D7566 - the standard specification for aviation turbine fuel containing synthesised hydrocarbons.

This is then blended with up to 50% conventional jet fuel and certified as ASTM D1655. Encouragingly, ASTM is also supporting the development of specifications for 100% SAF.

The advantage of co-processing is that it does not require the significant financial investment and time that comes with building a new standalone facility.

Relatively minor modifications are required to enable the production of SAF through co-processing while new plants get up and running.

Additionally, these facilities potentially have greater flexibility in feedstocks for the coming years of energy transition, being able to switch between co-processing and the traditional processing of crude oil to meet fluctuations in demand.
There are currently around 600 refineries3 in the world.

That is a huge manufacturing resource in terms of the opportunity to help production today.

Another advantage of co-processing is that operators can be flexible in terms of increasing the volumes of renewable feedstocks, while decreasing crude oil volumes.
bp has launched an ASTM co-processing taskforce working alongside other industry experts to increase the limit of approved renewable feedstocks from 5% up to 30%.
If successful, this approval will benefit the entire industry. It is about finding a universal route to help the industry transition to a low-carbon future. Ultimately, the aim will be to explore co-processing of up to 100% renewable feedstocks as reliance on crude oil diminishes in the future.

When it comes to transporting feedstocks to refineries, this is typically done by rail, truck, or barge.
For example, the bp refinery in Lingen can receive shipments by barge, which enables feedstocks to be transported in bulk offering more competitive freight costs and in most cases lower carbon emissions compared to trucks.
Once produced, the optimum method for transporting SAF is via pipeline.
This is a highly efficient, convenient and safe way of supplying fuel to airports. Generally, aviation fuel in the US is supplied to airports using a network of pipelines4 and in Europe many existing refineries are well connected to efficient logistics solutions such as pipelines or rail.
Standalone plants (depending on where they are located and the supply routes for such plants) might not be so well connected.

Another challenge fuel suppliers face is that to qualify for tax credits and other financial incentives some jurisdictions require measurement of the renewable carbon content in aviation fuel, using third party verification through C-14 testing.
This test is for carbon from recently living sources such as plants and animals. However, with the range of renewable feedstocks continually evolving C-14 is not an effective test method for all possibilities, for example with municipal solid waste.
Given SAF from standalone plants is produced from 100% renewable feedstocks, the requirement for C-14 is not necessary and bp anticipates this resource-intensive test method will eventually be removed for standalone-produced SAF.

However, the company also believes that co-processing on its own will not be enough to meet increasing SAF demand.

Standalone units will also be required to ramp up production. Building on its refinery footprint in the near-term future, bp anticipates investing in five major biofuels projects, including three adjacent to existing refineries and the conversion of up to two biorefineries. READ MORE