Canada’s wood waste could fuel five times its jet demand, SUSTAERO says

SUSTAERO says a new white paper finds Canada’s forest residues could become a major sustainable aviation fuel source, especially when paired with low-carbon hydrogen. The report lands as Ottawa considers fuel regulations that could improve the economics of domestic SAF production.

Why it matters: - Canada’s forest residues could help address one of SAF’s biggest bottlenecks: limited supply of low-carbon feedstocks. - SUSTAERO says hydrogen-enhanced wood-to-SAF could cut lifecycle carbon intensity by 90% versus fossil jet fuel. - The company says the approach could also position Canada as a major fuel exporter if regulations and project development align.

What happened: - SUSTAERO released a white paper, Wood Waste: Canada’s SAF Feedstock Advantage, at the Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition Global Biobased Economy Conference. - The report argues that wood waste is the largest feedstock available to decarbonize global jet fuel. - Keith Gillard, SUSTAERO’s CEO and co-founder, said meeting global SAF targets requires moving beyond scarce lipid feedstocks to abundant alternatives. - Gillard is presenting the findings again later this week at the Sustainable Aviation Futures North American Congress in Houston.

The details: - Canada holds close to 9% of the world’s forests, according to the white paper. - Using conventional gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, Canada’s gross wood waste could supply more than 2.5 times current domestic jet fuel demand. - Adding low-carbon electrolytic hydrogen through SUSTAERO’s Syngas Optimization for Aviation Renewables, or SOAR, process roughly doubles fuel yield per dry tonne. - With that hydrogen boost, Canada’s logging and uncommitted mill residues alone could supply more than five times current domestic jet fuel demand. - Brightspot Climate independently calculated a 90% lifecycle carbon intensity reduction for the hydrogen-enhanced pathway, compared with fossil jet fuel. - SUSTAERO says clean wood waste costs about one-fifth as much as HEFA feedstocks such as used cooking oil or tallow on an energy-adjusted basis. - The paper says earlier first-of-a-kind biorefinery failures were driven by contaminated feedstocks and custom technology integration. - SUSTAERO says it avoids those risks by using clean wood residues and commercially proven licensor technology at Technology Readiness Level 9. - The release says Canada is proposing amendments to its Clean Fuel Regulations that would give SAF made in Canada from North American feedstocks an effective 1.8-times credit multiplier, described as an 80% top-up in compliance credits. - The full white paper is available after registration at SUSTAERO’s website.

Between the lines: - The report is making a cost-and-scale case for forest residues over lipid-based SAF pathways, which face tighter supply limits and higher feedstock pressure. - The policy backdrop matters because a credit multiplier could improve project economics for domestic SAF production, even before large-scale plants come online. - SUSTAERO is also signaling that technology risk is lower than in earlier biorefinery attempts because it is relying on established systems rather than custom integration.

What’s next: - SUSTAERO plans to keep pitching the white paper to industry audiences in the U.S. and Canada this week. - The company says the next step is to advance its wood-waste-to-SAF platform toward large-scale deployment. - SUSTAERO says it aims to become the world’s first billion-litre wood-waste-to-SAF producer.

The bottom line: - SUSTAERO’s pitch is simple: Canada has enough wood waste to matter at global SAF scale, and hydrogen plus supportive policy could make it economic.