Australia launches $19.96M competitive SAF grant program

In Australia, on behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has opened an A$30 million funding initiative to reduce emissions in the aviation sector. Australia’s aviation industry accounts for roughly 1 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and is viewed as a hard to abate sector. Most of these emissions are from medium to long haul flights.

The Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Funding Initiative aims to support the development of a SAF industry with production from renewable feedstocks in Australia. The SAF Funding Initiative will examine opportunities across the supply chain from renewable feedstock supply to final fuel production, identifying their requirements to enable and scale a domestic SAF industry.

The open initiative will welcome applications seeking ARENA grant funding between $1 million and $30 million via a two-stage application process. ARENA is seeking proposals for commercial or pre-commercial SAF production with funding provided to support engineering feasibility and project development activities or funding for pilot scale and pre-commercial demonstrations.

ARENA will also seek proposals with novel and scalable approaches across the supply chain. This could include innovation in feedstock supply such as aggregation or business models to enable domestic SAF production. Proposals will be required to demonstrate that they use or process an eligible renewable feedstock and production pathway. Power to Liquids (PtL) or E-fuels production pathways are not supported under the Funding Initiative.