Webinars
From Demonstration to Deployment: Can Hydrogen Deliver SAF at Scale?
What is going well when scaling SAF and which challenges still need to be overcome? On 30 June, Hydrogen Europe Research and Women in Green Hydrogen hosted the webinar "From Demonstration to Deployment: Can Hydrogen Deliver SAF at Scale?", bringing together experts from research, industry, and policy to discuss the current state of hydrogen-based SAF and the path towards large-scale deployment.
Speakers:
💠Maria Georgiadou (European Commission)
💠Henar Olmedo Gómez (Clean Hydrogen Mission)
💠Elke Reuschenbach (DLR-Institut für Future Fuels)
💠Mariano Berkenwald (INERATEC)
Moderator:
💠Meriem Fikry (Women in Green Hydrogen/ Bauhaus Luftfahrt)
Here are some of the key points that emerged from the discussion:
- There is no single solution for aviation decarbonisation. A portfolio of technologies will be needed, with advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs), including hydrogen-based e-SAF, playing complementary roles. The challenge now is to create bankable industrial value chains that can attract investment and support large-scale deployment.
- The technology is advancing, but economics remain a major barrier. Commercialisation depends on reducing the cost of renewable electricity and green hydrogen, lowering CAPEX for first-of-a-kind plants, and continuing innovation across the value chain. Emerging options such as geological hydrogen may also contribute to lowering costs in the future.
- Deployment requires more than technology. Financing, certification, infrastructure, and market access remain critical challenges. Producing sustainable aviation fuel is only part of the journey; ensuring that new producers can successfully enter the aviation fuel market and scale their operations is equally important.
- Policy ambition must translate into implementation. Europe has established an increasingly comprehensive policy framework for SAF, but accelerating commercial deployment will require continued investment, stronger collaboration between research, industry and policymakers, and greater certainty for investors.
Thank you to everyone who joined the webinar!
The exchange reinforced one clear message: the question is no longer whether hydrogen-based SAF can contribute to aviation decarbonisation, but how quickly we can create the conditions that allow these technologies to scale.
Advancing hydrogen-based SAF will require continued collaboration, and coversations like these are an important step towards accelerating deployment!
