India has the potential to convert its abundant agricultural waste and cost-effective green hydrogen into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), as per a recent report by the India Energy and Climate Centre, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, and Energy Innovation Policy and Technology. The country is grappling with challenges like escalating dependence on imported crude oil, deteriorating air quality due to burning of agricultural residue, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector. Despite these issues, India boasts advantages in low-cost green hydrogen and the establishment of large-scale agricultural residue supply chains.
A method known as Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquids (PBtL) involves gasifying excess crop waste such as rice and wheat straw, combining it with green hydrogen, and transforming the resulting synthesis gas into liquid jet fuel using the Fischer-Tropsch process. The report highlights that India’s PBtL approach can generate SAF at costs nearly 40% lower than global SAF benchmarks, driven by highly competitive green hydrogen prices and economical agricultural residue expenses.
The findings suggest that until Indian PBtL SAF can directly rival fossil jet fuel, it can still cater to the surging international SAF demand economically while safeguarding against spikes in crude oil prices. The report also indicates that PBtL SAF holds significant market potential and could potentially meet all of India’s aviation needs by 2050; production costs of PBtL SAF may dip below fossil jet fuel prices by the 2030s or even earlier based on market dynamics and policy advancements.
The report envisions how India can capitalize on these strengths to establish a PBtL sustainable aviation fuel industry that offers a domestically competitive alternative to imported crude oil-dependent fossil jet fuel, utilizes agricultural residue that is presently burned, and decarbonizes the country’s aviation sector. It asserts that PBtL is prepared for commercial demonstration and expansion, surpassing other SAF technologies in terms of cost, carbon footprint, and resource efficiency, while also yielding various benefits like averting premature deaths linked to local air pollution.
Moreover, the report provides a detailed assessment at the district level, illustrating that surplus agricultural residue availability and low green hydrogen costs align in regions surrounding Delhi, Pune, and Mumbai airports, indicating their suitability for supporting the near-term growth of the PBtL industry. It concludes that with early investments and strategic policies to tackle initial deployment challenges and mitigate unintended consequences, India can trigger a positive cycle of scalability and cost reduction that enhances its self-reliance, public health, and global climate leadership.
