Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will start generating sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in December, in step with its Chairman Mr. A. S. Sahney.
The corporation’s SAF manufacturing unit, located combining its refinery in Panipat, Haryana, will have an yearly capacity of 35,000 tonnes. This output could be sufficient to satisfy the complete SAF blending needs for international airlines in India by 2027, Mr. Sahney stated.
India has embraced a phased method to SAF, beginning with a mandate for 1% blending in jet fuel for international flights by way of 2027, growing to 2% by 2028.
SAF will price almost 3 times more than conventional aviation turbine fuel (ATF), however locating buyers will not be an problem, Mr. Sahney stated, as airlines have to observe the blending mandate. If the Panipat facility’s output isn’t absolutely absorbed locally, IOC will explore exports, he delivered.
Used cooking oil (UCO) will serve the feedstock for SAF manufacturing. “Organizing feedstock isn’t always a challenge. There is plenty of collection of UCO within the country, most of which is recently exported,” Mr. Sahney stated.
IOC plans to tap into the existing UCO aggregation community, which sources oil in particular from big hotels, restaurant chains, and traditional snack makers.
The Panipat unit has also attained ISCC CORSIA certification – a prerequisite for commercial SAF manufacturing. IOC is presently the only corporation in India to preserve this certification for manufacturing SAF from used cooking oil, valid for the next twelve months, Mr. Sahney stated. The certification also set a benchmark for different domestic refiners and industry players to scale up SAF manufacturing, consistent with the authorities’ vision and attaining net-zero emissions by 2070.
IOC also introduced that it has signed a MoU to deliver SAF to Air India, representing a great step towards a greener and cleanser aviation in India.
Butyl acrylate plant installation
In another development, IOC stated it has set up a Rs. 5,000-crore plant at its Koyali refinery in Gujarat to supply Butyl Acrylate (BA), which is utilized in making paints. The 1,50,000 tons per annum butyl acrylate plant, most effective second in India after BPCL’s unit at Kochi refinery, will assist end 3,20,000 tons of annual paint feedstock that the country recently imports, Mr. Sahney noted.
“The paint industry is developing at a CAGR of 13-14%, and the majority of the raw material they use is imported. In July, we commissioned the BA unit at Koyali refinery, as a way to eliminate the requirement to import, saving foreign exchange for the country,” he stated. Together with the Kochi plant, the new unit can substitute as much as 80-90% of imports, he added.
