Sustainable aviation fuel production and assessment

The aviation industry aims for net‑zero CO₂ emissions by 2050, with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) expected to deliver around 65% of required reductions. However, the adoption of SAFs is constrained by limited existing production technologies and limited resources available for these mature technologies. Conversion of abundant renewable carbon feedstocks (e.g., biomass and CO₂) with different technologies is key to facilitating the development of SAFs. Advancing biomass- and CO₂‑derived feedstock conversion, improving reaction chemistry understanding, and meeting strict fuel specifications are essential. This special collection aims to gather the latest research supporting SAF development and provide actional insights for scaling up SAF technologies to decarbonize aviation. Potential topics for the collection include but are not limited to, 

• Catalytic valorisation of bio-derived feedstocks towards SAF (including conversion of alcohol, lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose, fatty acid and esters)
• Conversion of CO₂ toward aviation fuel
• Commercialisation of SAF production technologies (including feedstock type, feedstock processing, catalytic conversion, production yield, compositional make-up for different approved SAF production technologies)
• Environmental, societal and economic assessments of technologies for SAF scale-up (including advantages and limitations of different SAF assessment technologies for future scale-up; troubleshooting and optimization implementation; and life cycle assessment (LCA) or techno-economic analysis (TEA))

Please note that this call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers

Articles can be submitted via the journal’s online submission system any time before the deadline. Please mention that this submission is an open call contribution to the Sustainable Aviation Fuels collection in the ‘Themed issues’ section of the submission form. All submissions will be subject to rigorous editorial assessment to meet the usual high standards of the journal. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and peer review or acceptance are not guaranteed. Accepted articles will be published in regular issues and later collated into the themed collection, which will be promoted widely.