In a significant step toward aviation decarbonization, major Japanese carriers are now being refueled with domestically produced Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) using waste cooking oil.

A ceremony was held July 7 at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to mark the official launch of the technology to achieve net zero emissions in aviation.

Shinichi Inoue, president of All Nippon Airways Co., told the gathering that SAF holds the key to achieving carbon neutrality, which means balancing emissions from human activities with those absorbed by forests and other sources.

Japan’s first SAF mass-production plant was completed at the site of Cosmo Oil Co.’s Sakai Refinery in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, last December.

The plant started production in April to supply SAF to Kansai, Chubu and Haneda airports.

While the central government has set 2050 as its target year to achieve carbon neutrality, the aviation industry envisages having SAF account for 10 percent of the fuel it uses in 2030. The industry came up with the goal in 2022 under its basic policy to promote decarbonization based on the Aviation Law.

Because cooking oils derive from plants that had absorbed carbon dioxide as they grew, SAF is said to reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 80 percent when compared with conventional jet fuel.

The key issue is producing enough of the stuff to achieve clean energy in the aviation sector.

The Agency for Natural Resources and Energy said 1.72 million kiloliters of SAF will be needed annually to achieve the 10 percent figure.

But only 500,000 tons, or around 550,000 kiloliters, of used cooking oil is generated in Japan each year, according to the Japan Federation of UC Oil Business Cooperative Associations (UCO Japan), which organizes the collection of waste cooking oil for recycling as biofuel.

The bulk, around 400,000 tons, is reclaimed from food industry sources, including food plants and restaurants, and is subsequently used for livestock feed or exported. Ninety-five percent of it is used that way.

Attention is now focused on how to collect 90 percent of the remaining 100,000 tons produced in homes that literally goes to waste.

Itami city authorities in Hyogo Prefecture formalized a SAF partnership during a ceremony held at the city hall in June.

Since fiscal 1999, the municipality has collected residential waste oil, converting it into biodiesel for its sanitation vehicles and other purposes.

But now, all the material is repurposed into sustainable aviation fuel.

The Higashi-Murayama city government in western Tokyo struck a similar agreement in February to collect used cooking oil from homes.

These agreements were spearheaded by construction giant JGC Holdings Corp. under its “Fry to Fly Project” to achieve the goal of emissions-free aviation.

About 250 entities, including more than 30 municipal governments, are supporting the initiative.

“The key is to secure waste cooking oil,” said project head Yuki Nishimura.

Oil company Eneos Corp. had also reached agreements with 26 municipalities as of June to collect waste cooking oil from households.

The company is working on a project with trading house Mitsubishi Corp. to produce SAF at its Wakayama refinery in or after the business year that begins in April 2028.

“It takes time for people to learn about SAF. We are forging ahead with the project as part of an awareness campaign before the plant starts operations,” a representative said.

The number of municipalities collecting waste cooking oil started to increase after the Conference of Parties (COP3) in 1997 in Kyoto.

The Kyoto city government began recovering used cooking oil that year to convert it into biodiesel fuel.

Currently, it collects about 120,000 liters at 1,645 locations across the city every year to power 185 garbage trucks and 115 city buses.

Kyoto-based Revo International Inc., which has been working with the city government on the project, also produces SAF.

Japan’s first SAF production plant in Sakai is run by a limited liability company whose shareholders include JGC Holdings, Cosmo Oil and Revo International.

Tetsuya Koshikawa, CEO of Revo International, has been at the forefront of collecting waste cooking oil and producing biodiesel fuels for the past 30 years.

“Many people said it would be difficult for biofuel to stay relevant, which makes it so heartening to see it being used as a recyclable resource to provide aviation fuel,” he said.

Koshikawa added: “Waste cooking oil is discarded along with food scraps, but it can be used effectively when it is separated. It is a necessary resource for Japan.”