INTERVIEW: ECOPHA seeks Indian biorefinery partner for pongamia SAF-bioplastic hub: executive

Australian biotechnology company ECOPHA is seeking an Indian biorefinery partner to scale an integrated process that uses pongamia oil to produce sustainable aviation fuel and biodegradable bioplastics, following laboratory and pilot work involving 400-500 liters of the non-edible oilseed feedstock.

The company initially plans to integrate its technology into an existing hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids, or HEFA, facility, providing a near-term route to demonstrate the process before considering a standalone plant, Priyanka Toshniwal, chief investment officer at ECOPHA, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

"By integrating ECOPHA's technology, a single renewable feedstock can be utilized to produce two high-value products, sustainable aviation fuel and PHA bioplastics," Toshniwal said. "This creates additional value from the same feedstock while opening up an additional revenue stream for existing SAF infrastructure."

The process separates pongamia oil into streams suitable for HEFA-based SAF and polyhydroxyalkanoate, or PHA, production. PHA is a biodegradable bioplastic that the company says is home-compostable, marine-safe and does not release microplastics. The company has also filed an international patent application covering an integrated process for producing renewable oleochemicals and PHA from pongamia oil.

Flexible output

The platform is designed to allow operators to adjust the proportions of SAF and PHA based on demand and project economics.

Toshniwal outlined an illustrative 100,000 metric tons/year facility producing 90,000 mt/year of SAF and 10,000 mt/year of PHA, describing the split as adjustable and the example as a potential configuration rather than a committed project.

ECOPHA estimates that PHA resin could sell for about $4,000/mt, generating additional revenue and potentially shortening the payback period for capital-intensive SAF investments.

Airlines could potentially purchase both outputs, using SAF in aircraft and PHA-based materials to replace some single-use plastics in cabins and airport operations, Toshniwal said.

"Even if the offtakers are not the same, they can sell the resin at a better price than whichever coproduct they would otherwise produce," she said.

Yield, maturity risks

Feedstock availability and certification represent the most significant near-term risks. The company's modeling indicates mature pongamia plantations could yield approximately 3.5-5 mt of oil per hectare annually, though actual performance would depend on genetics, soil, location, weather and cultivation practices, requiring further field validation.

"The most challenging part is the feedstock, getting the land and getting it growing," she said. "For five or six years, it doesn't give anything. But once it is there, it is there for decades."

To bridge the supply gap, ECOPHA has tested pongamia oil blended with used cooking oil. Laboratory trials worked within the process, although an optimal commercial blending ratio has not been established, Toshniwal said.

"Initially, if you don't have enough pongamia, we can do the blending," she said. "Once the yield increases and the demand increases, you need those volumes of feedstock. UCO will be limiting as well."

Certification and lifecycle-emissions recognition remain critical unresolved risks. Toshniwal said plantation development, refinery partnerships and regulatory engagement must proceed in parallel to avoid missing the emerging SAF demand window.

Toshniwal said regulatory recognition and government support must progress alongside plantations, refinery planning and offtake development because waiting for one stage to finish before beginning another could extend commercialization beyond the emerging demand window.

"We need both side by side," she said. "Everything has to happen in parallel. We need to start the pongamia plantation because it takes five years, and we need to start talking to the right stakeholders in terms of the biorefinery."

The company's Bhutan collaboration is intended to provide a localized demonstration and research model for plantation data, traceability, sustainability, and certification before the system is replicated at a greater scale.

Multiple revenue streams

Beyond SAF and PHA, crushing pongamia seeds produces a protein-containing meal that could become an additional revenue stream, subject to appropriate processing and safety requirements.

Priyanka said animal feed is being considered in project economics, although SAF and PHA would remain the two primary outputs. Some meals could also be consumed locally within plantation and agricultural systems rather than sold into international feed markets.

The three-output structure differentiates the model from projects dependent on fuel revenue alone, but it also means commercial viability will rely on developing markets for multiple products while simultaneously establishing plantations, certification and refining partnerships.