EcoCeres and British Airways Extend SAF Supply Agreement to 2030

EcoCeres, a global leader in renewable fuels and green molecules, has announced the extension of its sustainable aviation fuel supply agreement with British Airways until the end of 2030, with the extended agreement expected to help British Airways avoid approximately 198,000 tonnes of lifecycle carbon emissions compared with using the same volume of fossil jet fuel. The avoided emissions are equivalent to offsetting the carbon footprint of around 341,000 round-trip economy class seats on direct flights between London and New York, providing a concrete scale reference for the climate impact of the multi-year supply commitment. EcoCeres' SAF is produced from 100 percent waste-based feedstocks including used cooking oil and can achieve lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reductions of up to 94.4 percent compared with fossil jet fuel, making it one of the highest-performance SAF pathways currently available at commercial scale.

 

The Waste-Based SAF Technology and Its Emissions Performance

 

EcoCeres' production approach using 100 percent waste-based feedstocks including used cooking oil avoids the land use change and food crop competition concerns associated with first-generation biofuel feedstocks, qualifying for higher lifecycle emissions reduction credits under certification schemes including ISCC and RSB. The up to 94.4 percent lifecycle emissions reduction compared with fossil jet fuel demonstrates that waste-based SAF can deliver near-complete decarbonisation of the fuel contribution to flight emissions when produced from certified waste supply chains, placing it among the highest-performing SAF production pathways currently operating at commercial scale. The drop-in compatibility of EcoCeres' SAF with existing aircraft and airport fuelling infrastructure without modification removes adoption barriers that more novel SAF production pathways face, allowing British Airways to increase its SAF blending percentage incrementally as supply grows without capital investment in fleet or ground infrastructure changes.

The feedstock advantage of waste-based SAF is particularly significant in the context of regulatory certification, where used cooking oil pathways have well-established mass balance accounting methodologies and widely recognised third-party certification schemes that provide the auditability airlines need to make credible regulatory compliance and sustainability reporting claims. The certification infrastructure surrounding waste-oil based SAF production is more mature than that available for newer production pathways including power-to-liquid and alcohol-to-jet from agricultural residues, giving airlines like British Airways greater confidence in the integrity of the lifecycle emissions calculations that underpin their sustainability reporting. EcoCeres' continued enhancement of production capabilities and strategic partnerships reflects a strategy of deepening its position in the waste-based SAF market as demand grows from both regulatory mandates and voluntary corporate procurement commitments.

 

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The Strategic and Commercial Logic of Long-Term Supply Agreements

 

Matti Lievonen, Chief Executive Officer of EcoCeres, said the extension reflects the strength of the partnership and a shared commitment to accelerating practical decarbonisation solutions for the aviation sector, and that EcoCeres remains focused on expanding the availability of waste-based SAF and supporting customers as they progress on their emissions-reduction journeys. The extension to 2030 provides British Airways with supply visibility across a period when ReFuelEU Aviation mandates are progressively tightening, rising from 2 percent SAF blending in 2025 to 6 percent by 2030, making long-term supply agreements with credible producers an increasingly important element of airline compliance planning. For EcoCeres, a committed multi-year offtake from a major international carrier provides the demand certainty that supports investment in production capacity expansion and supply chain development without the revenue risk of merchant production.

The extension underscores the importance of long-term collaboration across the aviation value chain to support SAF market development and strengthen supply visibility as demand continues to grow. As airlines work toward their net-zero ambitions, long-term partnerships with established SAF producers play a critical role in accelerating production scale-up by providing the revenue predictability that project finance lenders require before committing capital to new production facilities. This demand signal function of long-term airline SAF agreements is commercially as important as their direct emissions impact, contributing to the investment environment needed to bring additional waste-based SAF production capacity online at the pace that aviation's decarbonisation trajectory requires.

 

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Outlook for Waste-Based SAF Supply and Aviation Decarbonisation

 

The EcoCeres and British Airways extension contributes to the growing body of commercial evidence that long-term SAF supply agreements between producers and airlines can create stable market foundations for production capacity investment, addressing one of the primary structural barriers to SAF scale-up identified by IATA, which recently reported that global SAF production will reach only 0.8 percent of aviation fuel use in 2026. Whether waste-based SAF from used cooking oil can scale sufficiently to meet growing blending mandate requirements without driving up feedstock costs through increased competition for limited waste oil supplies will be a critical constraint on this production pathway's long-term contribution to aviation decarbonisation. The development of additional waste feedstock streams beyond used cooking oil, including animal fats, municipal solid waste and forestry residues, will be essential for expanding the supply base of waste-based SAF beyond current volumes.

Sustained delivery of the 198,000 tonne emissions avoidance commitment through the 2030 agreement would demonstrate that long-term waste-based SAF supply relationships can reliably deliver material carbon impact alongside commercial value for both producer and airline partners. The convergence of tightening European SAF mandates, growing corporate aviation decarbonisation commitments and the relative maturity of waste-oil based SAF production technology creates conditions in which agreements like the EcoCeres and British Airways extension are likely to become increasingly common as the SAF market matures toward the volumes needed to make a meaningful contribution to aviation's net-zero pathway.

 

Source: EcoCeres