Taking flight with algae

A newly identified marine microalga called Sphaerica is set to bolster sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) feedstock supply, offering refiners worldwide a scalable, and independent oil stream for HEFA, SAF and renewable diesel. The growing SAF feedstock challenge For much of the past decade, the challenge facing SAF was how to produce it. Today, that challenge is changing. As HEFA refining capacity expands across major fuel markets, attention is turning to a more fundamental constraint: the availability of sustainable oils required to supply those assets at scale. With waste oils finite and agricultural feedstocks under increasing land-use pressure, interest is growing in non-arable biological oil sources capable of supplying hydroprocessing infrastructure without competing with food production. Microalgae were once expected to fill this role. Yet repeated attempts to cultivate laboratory-selected strains at industrial scale ended in widely publicised programme failures. The concept worked in controlled environments, but large-scale outdoor systems struggled with poor yields and culture crashes caused by fluctuating sunlight, temperature...