Joint Development of a Novel Catalyst for Producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
—Achieves World-Class Yield^*1 (More Than Double Conventional Methods), Contributing to the Wider Adoption of SAF—

Mar. 27, 2026

JFE Engineering Corporation
University of Toyama

JFE Engineering Corporation (President and CEO: Kazuyoshi Fukuda; Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) has jointly developed a novel catalyst for producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF^*2 ), one of the most promising approaches for decarbonizing the aviation sector, in collaboration with the University of Toyama (President: Shigeru Saito; Head Office: Toyama City).

The catalyst is used in Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis^*3 , which is required to produce SAF from synthesis gas composed of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H₂). By enhancing the performance of catalysts developed by Professor Noritatsu Tsubaki of the School of Engineering, University of Toyama^*4、5 , the new catalyst achieves high performance with a yield^*6 of more than 50% for liquid hydrocarbons suitable for SAF production, enabling a highly productive SAF synthesis process.
With conventional FT synthesis catalysts, the hydrocarbons produced must be converted into the carbon number range suitable for SAF through hydrocracking^*7 . When losses during this hydrocracking process are taken into account, the SAF yield typically remains at around 25%. In contrast, FT synthesis using the newly developed catalyst eliminates the need for hydrocracking plants, which require significant capital investment, as well as additional hydrogen input. As a result, equipment costs can be significantly reduced while enabling SAF production at more than twice the yield of conventional processes using FT synthesis alone.
Currently, both in Japan and overseas, the primary feedstock for SAF production is used cooking oil. However, due to limited edible oil supply, feedstocks are expected to diversify to include biomass and waste materials such as municipal solid waste. Over the longer term, synthetic fuels produced by reacting carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured from power plants and factories with hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources are expected to play an important role^*8 . FT synthesis is essential for producing SAF from these feedstocks, and the newly developed catalyst can be applied in such processes.

JFE Engineering Corporation and the University of Toyama will continue to advance SAF synthesis processes utilizing this catalyst and contribute to the decarbonization of the aviation sector through the wider adoption of SAF.