Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) growth positions platinum as a key driver of the aviation energy transition

SAF is a key pathway in the aviation sector’s decarbonisation strategy, capable of reducing lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel. Global policy momentum is accelerating, with mandates and blending targets announced across the EU, UK, and US driving rapid investment in production capacity with global production expected to reach ~140 Mt by 2050f. However, despite this progress, SAF currently accounts for less than 0.2% of global jet fuel consumption, constrained by high production costs and limited feedstock availability.

Platinum plays a vital role across all major SAF production pathways. It is used for isomerisation in Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) routes, as a promoter in cobalt catalysts within Power-to-Liquid (PtL) and FT synthesis, and indirectly through PEM electrolysers used to produce green hydrogen for PtL fuels. PtL is the most platinum-intensive pathway and as deployment accelerates toward 2030f, WPIC forecasts platinum demand from SAF to rise nearly ninefold to over 260 koz per annum by 2050f, more than offsetting the expected longer-term decline in petroleum refining-related platinum use and reinforcing platinum’s importance to the energy transition.

Whilst this is a long-term outlook for platinum demand, SAF is a complex space due to the multiple production pathways. This report serves to explain not only the SAF platinum use case, but is also a valuable reference for anyone looking to understand the SAF market more broadly.

Figure 1. Annual platinum demand under different SAF adoption scenarios