News

Hong Kong interested in American-made SAF

Interest in sustainable aviation fuel is soaring in Asia.

Minnesota Soybean Growers executive director Joe Smentek recently traveled to Hong Kong as part of a USDA trade mission and says there were discussions about the carbon scores of SAF feedstocks.

“Hong Kong is really interested in sustainable aviation fuel, so it’s really important to be here to kind of try to downplay some of the myths that get involved and brought up when you’re dealing with U.S. feedstocks.”

He tells Brownfield there’s some hesitation in Hong Kong about jet fuel derived from corn ethanol.

“And really explaining to them how the ethanol SAF is still much, much, much lower carbon intensity than oil would be, and the availability and the affordability of that product coming out of the U.S. is much better than South America’s carbon footprint.”

Smentek says the trade delegation also highlighted the quality of U.S. corn and corn ethanol on the global market.