INTERVIEW: SAF needs feedstock 'sandbox,' more eligibility: FatHopes CEO

The sustainable aviation fuel industry needs a regulatory testing framework that allows novel waste and residue feedstocks to be collected, characterized and commercially evaluated before determining their formal eligibilities, says Vinesh Sinha, founder and CEO of Malaysia-based renewable energy company FatHopes Energy.

Without such a pathway, potentially useful materials may disappear from supply chains before certification systems have enough information to assess them, Sinha said in a Sept. 28 interview with Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

"The tragedy of discovering new materials is that if they do not find a commercially viable opportunity before certification or acceptance, they are going to die as a waste stream and will not become a feedstock for [sustainable aviation fuel," he said.

FatHopes aggregates and converts SAF feedstock in Asia, while securing cross-border partnerships and supply pacts, with a focus on powering its upcoming 300,000 metric ton/year SAF refinery project in Port Klang, expected to be commissioned in mid-2030.

The biofuels industry should create an incubation structure through which waste streams can be identified, tested and profiled without requiring an immediate eligibility decision, Sinha said. The resulting database would allow regulators, certification bodies and refiners to reassess materials as technology, economics and sustainability criteria evolve, he explained.

"We are working toward a sandbox-type model where feedstocks can be presented, tested, evaluated and profiled," Sinha said. "The conclusion does not have to be whether they can or cannot be used. It is about creating a database, because perspectives and technologies may change."

The central target should be to reduce lifecycle emissions rather than to prescribe a narrow set of raw materials or technologies, he added.

Stability needed for investment

Long-term regulatory consistency is critical because collectors, processors and project developers cannot commit capital without visibility over whether a feedstock will remain eligible, Sinha said.

"If you do not have a stable framework, it is difficult for an organization to put significant investments behind building the supply chain," he said.

Feedstock availability is not simply a question of theoretical volume, Sinha said: Waste materials must be identified, separated, collected repeatedly and delivered with consistent quality and documentation. New streams may initially exist in small, dispersed quantities, making dedicated collection uneconomic until demand assigns them value.

"Fifteen years ago, UCO was worth about $80/metric ton," he said. "It is demand that increased the value."

Other agricultural, industrial and household residues could follow the same progression, Sinha said. Once a material develops a reliable commercial outlet, collection can expand outward from areas where supply, processing and demand are already integrated. Waste and residue availability should also grow with population and economic activity because the materials originate from the human consumption footprint, he added.

Technology broadens feedstock pool

Refining technology has become capable of processing a wider range of feedstock qualities, while catalysts, pretreatment systems and operating practices have improved, Sinha said. However, producers must still understand each material's origin, quality and physical composition before determining whether it can be processed economically.

Collaboration between suppliers, refiners and technology licensors will therefore remain important as plants expand their feedstock portfolios.

Sinha said biofuels regulation has historically moved between two extremes: conventional materials that are easy to process but have weaker sustainability attributes, and highly constrained waste feedstocks that receive favorable policy treatment.

This leaves insufficient room for byproducts and intermediate categories that may deliver useful emissions reductions but do not fit neatly into existing eligibility lists.

"If we create a wider range within that middle ground, it gives greater optionality for investment," Sinha said.

Prescriptive certification creates silos

Current certification systems require an emerging material to be assigned to a recognized category before sufficient data may exist to classify it properly, according to Sinha.

This can encourage suppliers to place new materials into the established category, offering the easiest route to commercialization, rather than assessing their environmental, social and economic characteristics independently, he said. A more flexible model, he added, would profile those attributes separately, allowing refiners and buyers to select materials suited to the markets they serve while maintaining supply-chain integrity.

Different regional rules also separate feedstocks and finished fuels into market-specific certification silos, increasing operational requirements for traders and refiners, Sinha said. Additional certification routes provide commercial options, but companies must still select the destinations and systems offering the strongest economic returns.

Asked which emerging feedstock could reach meaningful scale by 2030, Sinha declined to identify a single material, arguing that diversification was more important than making a concentrated bet.

Existing operators and supply chains are likely to lead near-term growth because they already have collection, logistics, processing and market-access experience, he said.

"I am not someone who would pick one material," Sinha said. "Diversifying the portfolio is key. Existing operators are best placed because keeping material in the market and circulating it is extremely important."