Singapore Airlines (SIA) has signed an agreement to buy up to 4,800 tonnes of next-generation sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from Aether Beacon Pte Ltd over three years, with deliveries due to begin in 2028, according to a joint release issued Wednesday by the airline and Aether Fuels.

SIA is the first airline to buy SAF from Project Beacon, Aether’s commercial production facility, which is being developed at Aster’s refining complex on Pulau Bukom in Singapore. The release said the deal is SIA’s first purchase of SAF made using technology that converts waste carbon feedstocks into aviation fuel.

Project Beacon will use feedstocks such as biomethane and industrial waste gases and will rely on Aether’s proprietary Aurora technology. The release described the project as an alternative to the hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) pathway, which depends on more constrained lipid-based feedstocks. Aether’s process builds on the Fischer-Tropsch method to turn the waste-derived gases into liquid fuel.

The fuel will be certified under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), the release said.

SIA’s Chief Sustainability Officer Lee Wen Fen said supporting SAF development and securing future supplies were “integral to SIA’s ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050”. She added that by buying from Project Beacon, the airline was showing demand for new lower-carbon fuel production pathways in Singapore.

Aether Fuels Co-Founder and Chief Executive Conor Madigan said the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding last year, before Project Beacon had been announced. He described the new binding agreement as a signal of committed demand from a leading global airline and said Singapore offers a strong ecosystem for aviation decarbonisation.

Aether said it plans to start up its first large-scale commercial plant by 2031, with capacity at least 10 times larger than Beacon’s.

The release did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

Source: PR