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From Waste to Wings

From Waste to Wings: Sustainable Aviation Fuel and the Future We Should Build

· Jacques Camier, founder · SustainAI.global

Recently, while flying Southwest Airlines, I noticed something that caught my attention: its goals around Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

I knew generally what SAF was, but I had never really stopped to understand how it was made.

So I started researching.

What I discovered was fascinating.

SAF can take materials we often think of as waste—used cooking oil, animal fats, agricultural and forestry residues, and even captured carbon dioxide—and turn them into fuel capable of powering commercial aircraft.

And the more I learned, the more I thought:

This is exactly the kind of economy we should be building.

We Still Need to Fly

Aviation connects families, businesses, researchers, workers, humanitarian organizations, and communities around the world. Airplanes also move medicine, food, equipment, and enormous amounts of global commerce.

The long-term answer to aviation emissions cannot simply be telling humanity to stop flying.

A better question is:

How do we preserve the enormous benefits of aviation while dramatically reducing its environmental impact?

Sustainable aviation fuel may be an important part of that answer.

Southwest's environmental sustainability plan sets a goal of replacing 10% of its total jet-fuel consumption with SAF by 2030 as part of its broader effort toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The scale of the challenge is significant. Southwest reports that SAF represented only around 0.3% of global jet-fuel demand in 2024 and less than 0.2% of its own total jet-fuel consumption. More recently, American Airlines described SAF as still accounting for less than 1% of worldwide jet-fuel use.

That means there is a tremendous amount left to build.

Turning Waste Into Jet Fuel

One of the most established SAF pathways begins with something remarkably ordinary:

used cooking oil.

The oil can be collected from restaurants and food processors, documented and tested, cleaned and treated, and then processed with hydrogen. Through advanced refining, its molecules are transformed into hydrocarbons suitable for use as an aviation-fuel blending component.

In simplified form:

Waste cooking oil → collection → pretreatment → refining → qualification and blending → airplane

The real process is more demanding than that short chain suggests. Finished fuel must meet rigorous aviation specifications, and approved SAF components are blended where required before entering the conventional fuel-distribution system.

The U.S. Department of Energy identifies several technical pathways. Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids—or HEFA—can use fats, oils, and greases. Alcohol-to-Jet converts qualified alcohols such as ethanol. Fischer–Tropsch pathways can use synthesis gas made from biomass or waste. Power-to-Liquid pathways can combine low-carbon hydrogen with captured carbon dioxide and electricity to create synthetic aviation fuel.

This is more than recycling.

It is turning waste and renewable resources into something valuable while building the industrial capability to do it safely.

And It Is Happening in Texas

What surprised me even more was discovering how much of this work is already happening here in Texas.

In Port Arthur, Diamond Green Diesel—a joint venture between Valero Energy and Darling Ingredients—has developed major SAF production capability. Darling reports that the facility began SAF operations in the fourth quarter of 2024 and can upgrade roughly half of its 470-million-gallon annual production capacity to SAF.

Southwest's 2024 supply agreement with Valero connects that Texas production to airline operations at Chicago Midway. Under the agreement, Diamond Green Diesel supplies the neat SAF, which is blended with conventional jet fuel and delivered through existing pipeline infrastructure.

Southwest has also entered into a 20-year agreement with USA BioEnergy for up to 680 million gallons of neat SAF. The planned facility near Bon Wier, Texas, is intended to use sustainably sourced forest thinnings, gasification, Fischer–Tropsch conversion, hydrocarbon upgrading, and carbon capture. Southwest has said purchases could begin as early as 2028.

Other Texas projects show how varied this future may become. Summit Next Gen is developing an ethanol-to-jet facility along the Houston Ship Channel. In Corpus Christi, Infinium has produced electro-SAF from waste carbon dioxide and renewable energy, and in August 2026 that fuel was blended, tested, delivered through an airport fuel system, and allocated to a commercial American Airlines flight to Dallas–Fort Worth.

Texas already has energy infrastructure, engineering knowledge, ports, pipelines, refineries, universities, skilled trades, and a culture of building at industrial scale. Those capabilities can help make the state a leader in the next generation of fuels.

The Supply Chain Is the Opportunity

When I started following SAF backward from the airplane, I realized how many people and organizations are required to make it possible.

Someone must recover the waste. A Waste and Residual Feedstock Recovery Company may coordinate restaurants, food processors, farms, forestry operations, and local collection routes. A Used Cooking Oil Recovery Coordinator helps keep that material clean, documented, traceable, and moving toward productive use.

Then the material must be converted. A Sustainable Aviation Fuel Refinery and Conversion Company brings together chemistry, hydrogen, heat, pressure, catalysts, controls, water, electricity, and safety systems. Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production Engineers work alongside pathway specialists in HEFA, Alcohol-to-Jet, Fischer–Tropsch, and Power-to-Liquid production.

The fuel does not move directly from a reactor into an airplane. Aviation Fuel Chemists and SAF Qualification Engineers help demonstrate that a pathway and its products meet demanding requirements. An Aviation Fuel Testing and Qualification Laboratory tests composition, physical properties, thermal stability, compatibility, and performance.

After qualification comes physical delivery. An Aviation Fuel Blending and Storage Terminal manages blending, quality, custody records, and batch release. Sustainable Aviation Fuel Logistics Managers coordinate pipelines, tankers, rail, terminals, airports, and contingency supply.

At the airport, an Airport Fuel Farm and Hydrant System Operator receives, stores, samples, filters, and distributes the finished fuel. Aircraft Refueling Technicians complete the final physical handoff under strict safety and quality procedures.

Airlines must create the demand that allows this system to scale. Airline Sustainable Aviation Fuel Procurement Specialists evaluate suppliers and secure fuel. SAF Offtake Agreement Specialists structure the long-term commitments that can help a producer finance a facility before the first gallon is made.

Around that physical chain are many more contributors: construction workers, process technicians, maintenance specialists, SAF Project Finance Specialists, Lifecycle Greenhouse-Gas Modelers, educators, regulators, software developers, and Energy Artificial Intelligence Systems Engineers who can improve forecasting, process optimization, reliability, and energy use.

One company may perform several of these functions, and not every project will need a separate organization for every stage. But the capabilities must exist somewhere.

This is why I believe economic opportunity and environmental sustainability can—and should—work together.

A more sustainable economy will require enormous amounts of innovation and meaningful work.

MQ Economics in the Real World

This connects directly with what I have called MQ Economics.

The goal should not be economic abundance without responsibility.

Nor should sustainability mean simply asking humanity to continuously do less.

The better goal is:

Expand human opportunity while becoming wiser stewards of the resources we have been given.

SAF provides a tangible example.

Waste becomes a resource.

Human knowledge transforms it.

Technology increases its value.

New industries and careers emerge.

Existing aircraft and much of the existing fuel infrastructure can continue serving humanity.

And the lifecycle environmental cost of aviation can potentially be reduced.

That is the kind of progress I want to see.

SAF Is Not a Magic Solution

We should also be careful not to call something sustainable merely because the word appears on the label.

SAF still emits carbon dioxide when burned. Its potential advantage is measured across the lifecycle compared with conventional jet fuel—not by pretending that combustion has no emissions.

Its true environmental benefit depends on the entire system: where the feedstock came from, whether land-use or food-production harms were displaced elsewhere, how the hydrogen and electricity were produced, how far materials were transported, what happened to water and residuals, and whether the accounting is accurate.

Different feedstocks and pathways can produce very different outcomes. That is why lifecycle analysis, chain-of-custody records, independent testing, qualification, and honest environmental claims are not administrative details. They are part of what makes the fuel worthy of the word sustainable.

That is where wisdom matters.

We need intelligence to invent these technologies, markets to scale them, and a moral compass to continually ask whether they are actually improving the world.

The Gap Is an Opportunity to Build

SAF still represents only a small percentage of aviation fuel.

But I do not look at that primarily as discouraging.

I see factories that have not yet been built.

Supply chains that still need to be created.

Scientists who need to discover better processes.

Workers who need new skills.

Entrepreneurs who can start new companies.

Artificial intelligence that can optimize chemistry, energy, logistics, manufacturing, and maintenance.

And entire industries that can emerge around solving the problem.

The gap is an economic map.

This is one reason we created the SustainAI Global Organizational Atlas: if we want a better future, we should begin identifying the organizations that need to exist and the careers people will need to build and operate them.

The Atlas now follows the SAF system from feedstock recovery through production, qualification, finance, logistics, airport infrastructure, and aircraft fueling. It does not treat SAF as a separate domain. It weaves the work through energy, sustainability, manufacturing, construction, transportation, artificial intelligence, education, finance, professional services, and government—because that is how a real economy works.

The better future will require science, factories, clean energy, skilled workers, investment, artificial intelligence, wise policy, and collaboration.

It is a reason to build.

And I want to thank Southwest Airlines for setting ambitious sustainability goals and helping advance the transition toward Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

Companies make many commitments, but as a customer, I pay attention to what organizations choose to pursue and invest in.

Southwest's efforts toward more sustainable aviation matter to me.

They won my business because of it.

Disclosure: This essay reflects my independent views as a customer and founder of SustainAI Global. It is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Southwest Airlines or any other company mentioned.

References & citations

  1. Southwest Airlines. "Environmental Sustainability Initiatives." Southwest Airlines. https://www.southwest.com/citizenship/planet/
  2. Southwest Airlines. "Sustainable Aviation Fuels." Southwest Airlines. https://www.southwest.com/citizenship/planet/sustainable-aviation-fuels/
  3. Southwest Airlines. "Southwest Airlines Brings Sustainable Aviation Fuel to Chicago Midway International Airport in the State's Largest SAF Supply Agreement." Southwest Airlines, October 17, 2024. https://investors.southwest.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/25/southwest-airlines-brings-sustainable-aviation-fuel-to-chicago-midway-international-airport-in-the-states-largest-saf-supply-agreement
  4. Southwest Airlines. "Southwest Airlines Signs Agreement with USA BioEnergy to Purchase Up to 680 Million Gallons of Sustainable Aviation Fuel." Southwest Airlines, November 2, 2023. https://www.southwestairlinesinvestorrelations.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/111/southwest-airlines-signs-agreement-with-usa-bioenergy-to-purchase-up-to-680-million-gallons-of-sustainable-aviation-fuel
  5. Darling Ingredients. "Diamond Green Diesel." Darling Ingredients. https://www.darlingii.com/solutions/fuel/diamond-green-diesel
  6. U.S. Department of Energy. Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Reducing Emissions from Commercial Flight. U.S. Department of Energy, May 2025. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/EERE-BETO-SAF-FS_FINAL_r2_1.pdf
  7. U.S. Department of Energy. "Sustainable Aviation Fuel." Alternative Fuels Data Center. https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/sustainable-aviation-fuel
  8. Office of the Texas Governor. "Governor Abbott Announces New Summit Next Gen Facility in Harris County." Office of the Texas Governor. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-new-summit-next-gen-facility-in-harris-county
  9. American Airlines. "American Airlines and Infinium Announce Commercial Passenger Flight Powered by eSAF." American Airlines, August 6, 2026. https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2026/American-Airlines-and-Infinium-announce-commercial-passenger-flight-powered-by-eSAF-OPS-OTH-08/default.aspx

Related SustainAI Global resources:

When citing this article: Camier, Jacques. "From Waste to Wings: Sustainable Aviation Fuel and the Future We Should Build." SustainAI Global, August 8, 2026, https://sustainai.global/articles/posts/from-waste-to-wings-sustainable-aviation-fuel/.