Aerospace Garage

Upskill / Aviation Standards and Regulations / Sustainable aviation fuel and CORSIA

Sustainable aviation fuel and CORSIA

What SAF is, how it is made and approved, the rules that require it, how its carbon is counted, and how airlines buy it

By Aerospace Garage Desk · Introductory · 50 minutes · 24 narrated pages · Updated October 2026

What you will be able to do

  • ✓ Define sustainable aviation fuel, explain why it must be a drop-in fuel, and compare the HEFA, Fischer-Tropsch, alcohol-to-jet and power-to-liquid pathways.
  • ✓ Explain how ASTM D7566, ASTM D1655 and Def Stan 91-091 govern SAF, how a new pathway is qualified, and why blends are capped today.
  • ✓ Explain why certified SAF blends need no change to engines or aircraft, what engineers still monitor, and how SAF reaches the wing.
  • ✓ Compare the European, UK, US and UAE approaches to SAF, and explain how CORSIA and the ICAO 2030 clean-energy goal work.
  • ✓ Explain how life-cycle emissions of SAF are calculated, why values differ by feedstock, and how claims are made without double counting.
  • ✓ Describe current SAF supply and cost signals, how airlines and airports buy and claim SAF, and the main trends to watch.

Course content

Session 1 · What SAF is, and how it is made

1.1

  1. A fuel that changes the carbon, not the aircraft · free preview
  2. Oils and fats: the HEFA route
  3. Gas, alcohol and power: the other routes
  4. Worked example: one flight, at the engine and over the life cycle
Session 2 · Specifications, approval and blend limits

1.2

  1. Jet fuel is defined by its specification
  2. Qualifying a new pathway
  3. Blend limits and the road to 100 per cent
  4. Worked example: how much HEFA can this batch take?
Session 3 · Engines, aircraft and the route to the wing

1.3

  1. No change on the flight deck
  2. What engineers still watch
  3. From refinery to wing
  4. From the investigation file: contaminated fuel on Cathay Pacific Flight 780
Session 4 · Mandates, incentives and CORSIA

1.4

  1. Europe and the UK: supply mandates
  2. The United States and the UAE: incentives and goals
  3. CORSIA and the global goal
  4. Worked example: one airline's CORSIA offsetting requirement for 2024
Session 5 · Counting the carbon: life-cycle emissions

1.5

  1. From well to wake
  2. Why feedstock matters
  3. Claiming it once
  4. Worked example: which SAF offer saves the most carbon per euro?
Session 6 · Supply, cost, practice and trends

1.6

  1. Supply, capacity and cost
  2. How airlines and airports buy SAF
  3. Trends to watch
  4. Worked example: one fuel supplier under ReFuelEU Aviation

Who this course is for

Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms

Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.