Emirates flight runs on 100% Virent SAF

In Massachusetts, Virent’s plant-based synthesized aromatic kerosene helped power an Emirates Airline demonstration flight, the first in the Middle East and North Africa to use 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in one engine and traditional jet fuel in the other. Virent, a Marathon Petroleum Corp. subsidiary, used its BioForming® process to produce the synthesized aromatic kerosene (SAK), a critical component that made the 100% SAF possible.

Today’s SAF – typically made from used cooking oil or other plant-based oil feedstocks – has to be blended with petroleum products because SAF lacks a component called “aromatics,” which is required to meet today’s jet fuel specifications. Virent’s SAK, made from renewable plant sugars, provides those aromatics.

Because Virent’s SAK is made from plant-based sugars as feedstocks, the carbon impact on a lifecycle basis is less than that of petroleum-based fuels.