Name: Why the World is Running Out of the Fuel Airlines Need Most
Uploaded: 2026-03-28T17:32:28.000Z
Duration: 6 min 48 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Modal verbs - B1

The future of flying may depend on... used cooking oil.

Adverbs of manner

There's only one problem: the world can't produce enough of it.

The airline industry hopes to slash emissions with sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF.

But the secret ingredient powering this fuel isn't rare or high-tech;

it's waste oil, collected from restaurant fryers and food factories, and

demand for it is rising faster than the world can supply.

Aviation accounts for around 2% of global CO2 emissions, and

unlike cars or power grids, there is no battery solution that works for commercial flights at scale yet.

Used cooking oil is not derived from traditional fossil fuel, and

its supply chain is something that needs to be deliberately set up.

The collections and the aggregations of used cooking oil are being done by smaller-scale companies, and

therefore the foundation is very different in terms of how it's compared to fossil fuel.

Around 80% of all SAF today is made using a technology called HEFA, hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids, which uses hydrogen to strip away oxygen and impurities, transforming these waste fats into high-performance fuel.

This "fryer-to-flight" technology is no longer just a green experiment;

it's now a regulatory must as governments transition from gentle incentives to hard requirements.

The UK and EU both launched mandates in 2025 that require airport suppliers to blend jet fuel with at least 2% SAF, but

The UK's mandate jumps to 10% by 2030, nearly double the EU's 6% requirement that year.

However, the EU's SAF mandate accelerates in the following decades, hitting 34% by 2040 and a massive 70% by 2050, while the UK's rises to 22% in 2040 as part of its broader Net Zero 2050 goal.

Meanwhile, the US is using tax credits to chase a voluntary 3 billion gallon production target by 2030, roughly equivalent to 10% of projected demand.

The country's ultimate goal is to produce 35 billion gallons by 2050 to satisfy 100% of domestic demand.

While SAF generally costs 2 to 4 times more than conventional jet fuel, high demand in mandated markets has pushed prices even higher, with some airlines paying up to 5 times the price of fossil fuel.

So in the short run, definitely there's a limited supply of the SAF stock, so therefore the prices will be driven up.

The mandate itself will not be sufficient to drive up the supply;

you need more of the policy support to come into the supply side as well.

For example, you need to de-risk the project so that will attract more suppliers to come in and join the market.

So who is picking up the tab for this expensive fuel?

We all consider three stakeholders, right?

And government definitely could come in to bear some of the costs through the tax credit as well as the grants.

And for airline companies, usually they are operating in very thin margin, and

it is very difficult for them to bear this kind of cost, so passing through the prices is usually expected.

I think the passengers will bear most of the cost in the competitive market.

Governments are tackling the SAF challenge with different strategies.

The UK has introduced a buyout price of £4.70 per liter, allowing airlines to pay a fee if they cannot source enough fuel, effectively turning the green mandate into a fossil fuel tax.

Meanwhile, Singapore is testing its own approach.

Instead of a traditional mandate, it's shifting the cost directly to the traveler.

Tickets sold from October for flights departing Singapore from 2027 will carry a mandatory SAF fee that can be as low as 1 Singapore dollar for a short hop to Bangkok or around 10 Singapore dollars for an economy seat to New York.

The fee can top 40 Singapore dollars for long-haul travelers in premium cabins.

The levy is designed to meet a 1% SAF blend that scales to 3 to 5% by 2030.

And to keep costs predictable and avoid the price volatility seen in European markets, a government-owned nonprofit company will aggregate demand and centrally procure SAF using the levy funds.

When you have the mandate, you are controlling for the volume, but

when you have the levy, you are basically setting up the cost.

So that means when the SAF price fluctuates, you may not know the exact quantity of the SAF that you purchase.

So that is the major difference between two types of policies.

Definitely the price is going to be going upwards because there's a limited supply, and

But in the medium and the long term, because we want to see that there will be more policy support for the suppliers as well, so therefore we wish that the suppliers will also be able to come in and to expand the production capacity.

So this will relieve the pressure for the prices.

The bigger bet, however, is what comes after the cooking oil.

In the United States, LanzaJet's ethanol-to-jet plant is now fully operating, a world first.

DG Fuel's planned $4 billion facility is taking a different route, converting waste biomass into jet fuel using Fisher Tropsk technology.

It has already secured deals with Delta and Air France-KLM.

In Singapore, Aster is pursuing a similar shift.

We are advancing our SAF via the two projects.

The first one is with ITER Fuels, which we are using waste gas to convert into SAF.

And in parallel, we have another project with Keppel where we are studying the viability of building an ethanol-to-jet plant on Jurong Island.

So for both of the projects, we are taking a different approach on the feedstock.

The other part of the difference is the technology pathway.

So both projects, if materialized, it will be the first of the kind in Asia.

The mandates are tightening, investment is moving, and the first plants are running.

The only question is whether the world can scale sustainable fuels fast enough to make a difference.

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Why the World is Running Out of the Fuel Airlines Need Most

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