BBGI Plc, the biotechnology arm of Bangchak Corporation Plc, is looking for new feedstocks, particularly from agricultural waste, to make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to support its new business of producing biofuel for aircraft.
SAF can replace jet fuel because their properties are similar, while the former has a smaller carbon footprint.
Bangchak is building a 10-billion-baht SAF factory, with a proposed production capacity of 1 million litres a day, near its oil refinery in Bangkok's Phra Khanong district.
The company, which aims to produce SAF from used cooking oil, expects to open the plant in early 2025. In addition to used cooking oil, BBGI wants to find "second-generation feedstocks" for SAF production, said Kittiphong Limsuwannarot, chief executive and president of BBGI.
The use of new feedstocks is based on the alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology of BBGI's business partner Fermbox, an India-based firm specialising in research and production of synbio products.
Synbio is an abbreviation of synthetic biology, a field of science that involves redesigning organisms, notably microbes, for specific purposes by engineering them to have new abilities.
ATJ is a process for the conversion of alcohols to an alternative jet fuel blendstock.
The two companies formed a joint venture named BBGI Fermbox Bio in order to search for new raw materials to make SAF.
Aviation authorities do not accept raw materials from plants that are food for people, but agricultural waste or leftovers from food processing are allowed, said Mr Kittiphong.
Demand for SAF is expected to soar based on growing concerns over carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft using conventional jet fuel. SAF can be made from used cooking oil or crop waste and produces up to 80% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional jet fuel, according to media reports.