Indigenous sustainable aviation fuel for flights in India | 2023

On May 19th, India's first commercial passenger flight using indigenously produced Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) took to the skies. AirAsia India flight i5-767 flew from Pune to New Delhi, using a blend of SAF based on agricultural feedstock supplied by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) in partnership with Praj Industries Ltd.

Praj produced the SAF samples in its R&D facility, Praj Matrix, before it underwent detailed testing at the IOCL laboratories. It was then blended to account for 1% of the fuel volume of the demonstration flight.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas hailed the flight as a significant milestone on India's path to Net Zero emissions. He stated that if India was to target a 1% SAF blend for its aviation sector by 2025, it would need 140 million litres of SAF per year, increasing to 700 million litres per year if the target was set to a more ambitious 5% SAF blend.

The complete press release by Praj Industries can be found here.