HVO Is the Aviation Fuel the Industry Can Use Today While Waiting for Synthetic Alternatives to Get Cheaper

The Fuel That Works in Today's Engines

The sustainable aviation fuel market has two distinct commercial tracks whose difference is commercially fundamental. Synthetic aviation fuels produced from green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide through the Fischer-Tropsch or methanol-to-jet pathway are the long-term decarbonisation solution that aviation's net-zero commitments ultimately require. They produce aviation fuel molecules whose carbon was captured from the atmosphere rather than extracted from fossil reserves, creating the near-zero lifecycle carbon footprint that genuine aviation decarbonisation requires. They are also expensive, produced in minimal quantities relative to aviation's fuel demand, and dependent on green hydrogen production infrastructure that does not yet exist at the scale the aviation market requires. Hydrotreated vegetable oil is not the long-term solution. It is the bridge that the aviation industry can cross today while the long-term solution gets cheaper and more available.

HVO is produced by reacting vegetable oils, animal fats, or used cooking oil with hydrogen under elevated temperature and pressure in a catalytic hydrotreatment process that removes oxygen from the feedstock and produces hydrocarbon molecules chemically equivalent to petroleum-derived kerosene. The resulting fuel is fully compatible with existing jet engines and fuel distribution infrastructure without modification, certified for blending with conventional jet fuel at up to fifty percent by volume under ASTM D7566 as an approved SAF pathway, and provides lifecycle carbon emission reductions of typically sixty to ninety percent relative to conventional jet fuel depending on the feedstock and its supply chain. These properties make HVO-based SAF the most commercially deployable sustainable aviation fuel available at meaningful scale in 2026, and the SAF volumes that airlines are using to meet their sustainability commitments and comply with emerging regulatory mandates are predominantly HVO-based.

Feedstock Supply and the Sustainability Constraint

The commercial constraint on HVO-based SAF is not the conversion technology but the feedstock supply whose sustainability credentials determine whether the lifecycle carbon saving that HVO claims is genuine. Used cooking oil is the feedstock whose sustainability is most straightforwardly defensible because it is a genuine waste stream whose collection from food service operations, food processing facilities, and household use does not create land use change or competition with food crop production. UCO-based HVO has the strongest lifecycle carbon credentials and commands the highest carbon credit value in the policy frameworks that provide financial incentives for SAF use. The supply of genuine used cooking oil is limited and is being stretched across the HVO market for road transport as well as aviation, creating competition for a feedstock whose verification and traceability is increasingly important as regulatory scrutiny of SAF feedstock claims intensifies. The European Union's ReFuelEU Aviation regulation and the US Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge are both creating demand mandates that require growing volumes of SAF in aviation fuel blends whose supply must be met with feedstocks that pass the sustainability verification that the regulatory frameworks require.

The expansion of HVO feedstock supply beyond UCO to animal fats, forestry residues, and agricultural waste is the commercial strategy that HVO producers are pursuing to expand their SAF production capacity without depending on UCO supply that cannot grow proportionally to aviation's SAF demand. Animal fats from meat processing present similar sustainability credentials to UCO but in larger volumes whose supply is more predictable. Forestry residues and agricultural waste require more complex conversion processes that increase production cost relative to lipid-based feedstocks but expand the addressable feedstock base to volumes whose scale is more commensurate with aviation's long-term SAF demand. The commercial competition among HVO producers for feedstock supply contracts, and the price that feedstock scarcity is creating in markets where SAF demand mandates have created guaranteed offtake, is the commercial dynamic shaping the HVO industry's competitive structure.

Airlines, Mandates, and the Offtake Market

The commercial offtake market for HVO-based SAF is being shaped by three converging forces. Voluntary corporate sustainability commitments from airlines whose passenger and freight customers increasingly require documented emissions reductions have created commercial demand for SAF that airlines are willing to pay a premium for relative to conventional jet fuel. Regulatory mandates in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and several other markets are creating compliance-driven demand whose volume and price are determined by the regulatory framework rather than purely by airline voluntary demand. And the corporate travel programmes of major companies whose scope 3 emissions accounting includes the aviation emissions of their employees are creating booking channel demand for SAF certificates that airlines can sell to corporate customers as an emissions offset for specific flights. The combination of these demand sources is creating the offtake certainty that HVO SAF producers need to justify the capital investment in production capacity expansion whose scale is the binding constraint on SAF supply growth.

Top 10 Companies in HVO and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Globally

1. Neste: World's largest SAF producer whose MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel is HVO-based and produced at its refineries in Finland, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the US; its feedstock strategy prioritising waste and residue inputs and its long-term SAF supply agreements with major airlines make it the commercial reference point for the HVO SAF market.
2. World Energy: US SAF producer operating one of the first dedicated SAF production facilities at Paramount, California; its position as a long-standing SAF supplier to Los Angeles International Airport and its feedstock diversification strategy create the commercial infrastructure that US airline SAF procurement depends on.
3. TotalEnergies: French energy major producing HVO SAF at its La Mede and Grandpuits biorefineries in France; its integrated energy company position creates the feedstock sourcing, refining, and distribution infrastructure that independent SAF producers cannot match at comparable scale.
4. SkyNRG: Dutch SAF supply company pioneering corporate SAF purchasing through its Book and Claim model; its partnerships with KLM, Lufthansa, and other airlines and its corporate SAF certificate programme create the demand aggregation that makes SAF purchasing accessible to companies whose volume is below direct airline offtake agreement thresholds.
5. Eni (Versalis): Italian energy company converting its Porto Marghera and Gela refineries to biorefinery operation producing HVO-based SAF; its refinery conversion strategy rather than greenfield biorefinery construction reduces capital cost and accelerates production timeline relative to new facility development.
6. Shell Aviation: Global aviation fuel supplier with SAF distribution capability across major airports and long-term SAF supply agreements with airlines; its distribution network and its airport fuel farm infrastructure create the logistical access to aircraft that SAF producers without distribution capability cannot provide independently.
7. Gevo: US alcohol-to-jet SAF producer developing the Net-Zero 1 facility in South Dakota; its ATJ pathway using sugars from agricultural feedstocks rather than the HEFA pathway that HVO uses creates the feedstock diversification that reduces dependence on the lipid feedstocks competing with road transport biodiesel.
8. LanzaTech: Carbon capture and utilisation company converting waste carbon gases from industrial sources into ethanol for ATJ SAF production; its waste gas fermentation technology represents the non-lipid SAF pathway whose feedstock sustainability credentials are strongest for industrial applications near steel mills and chemical facilities.
9. Velocys: UK SAF developer pursuing Fischer-Tropsch SAF from municipal solid waste and woody biomass; its Altalto project targeting SAF production from household waste represents the power-to-liquids and waste-to-fuel pathway whose long-term cost trajectory is most important for aviation decarbonisation beyond the HVO bridge period.
10. IATA: International Air Transport Association coordinating the aviation industry's SAF demand commitment and standardising the Book and Claim accounting framework; its role in aggregating airline SAF demand commitments and its policy engagement with governments on SAF mandate design makes it the commercial infrastructure body whose decisions shape the SAF market structure.