Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) represent the only technologically viable pathway for large-scale aviation decarbonization within the constraints of existing aircraft infrastructure. However, the long-term scalability of current bio-based SAF pathways is limited by feedstock availability and land-use constraints. Power-to-Liquid fuels are therefore likely to become the structural backbone of aviation decarbonization, while biomass-based SAF functions as a transitional bridge technology. As a result, the strategic challenge facing policymakers is not whether SAF should be adopted, but how rapidly the global energy system can scale the infrastructure required to produce these fuels.
R.K.D. Kho (Fri,) studied this question.