UK MoD to adopt up to 30% blended SAF following BP-led review
May 9, 2025
A new ‘Defence Standard’ milestone has been reached by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to allow the use of up to 30% blended SAF in its aircraft, something industry taskforce leader BP described as “a significant increase” from the current limit of 5%.
The new permission was granted following evaluation by a collaboration of industry stakeholders, OEMs, fuel producers, airlines and the International Air Transport Association (IATA); drawing upon the latters’ experience of operational use of the blended fuel. The taskforce was led by BP and conducted from its facilities in Bochum, Germany; using pilot plant and analytical testing facilities available onsite.
The updated Def Stan 91-091 means the UK MoD can now co-process with up to 30% renewable SAF produced through the HEFA production pathway, a manufacturing method (typically using waste oils, fats or other bio-feedstocks) used for the overwhelming majority of SAF in existence today.
With the biofuel a ‘drop-in’ replacement alongside existing Jet-A fuels, “co-processing of SAF is possible with only limited additional capital investments, and it should be maximised – the example of BP and the UK Ministry of Defence is one we wish many countries and SAF producers will follow,” said IATA senior vice president of sustainability and chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen.
In November 2022, former Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston announced: “Climate change is a transitional challenge that threatens our resilience, our security and our collective prosperity. That is why I have set the RAF the ambitious challenge of becoming the world’s first net-zero Air Force by 2040. The way we power our aircraft will be key to meeting that challenge”.
Following Typhoon air-to-air refuelling demonstration flights conducted in January 2023, in April 2024, World Fuel Services confirmed a follow-on agreement to continue to provide the RAF with blended SAF. Prior to this 4 million litre offtake agreement, UK MoD SAF deliveries “had only been in small parcels transported by truck via ferry and used for testing or single exhibit flights,” stated World Energy. However, blended SAF has been in regular RAF use since August 2024.
