India's Aviation Opportunity: Turning Agricultural Residue and Low-Cost Solar into Competitive Sustainable Aviation Fuel with Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquids

This research paper proposes that India can develop a cost-competitive sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry using power-and-biomass-to-liquids (PBtL) technology, leveraging low-cost green hydrogen and agricultural residue to reduce crude oil imports and aviation emissions.

• India's PBtL route for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) can achieve production costs approximately 40% lower than global SAF benchmarks, primarily due to low costs for agricultural residue and record-low green hydrogen prices.
• PBtL SAF has the potential to meet all of India's aviation demand by 2050, with production costs potentially dropping below those of fossil jet fuel by the 2030s or sooner, depending on policy and market conditions.
• A district-level analysis indicates that the regions surrounding Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi airports are most suitable for early PBtL industry growth because they align low green hydrogen costs with available surplus agricultural residue.

APA

Brown, L. (2026). India's Aviation Opportunity: Turning Agricultural Residue and Low-Cost Solar into Competitive Sustainable Aviation Fuel with Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquids. Energy Innovation. https://energyinnovation.org/report/indias-aviation-opportunity-turning-agricultural-residue-and-low-cost-solar-into-competitive-sustainable-aviation-fuel-with-power-and-biomass-to-liquids/

Chicago

Brown, Lydia. India's Aviation Opportunity: Turning Agricultural Residue and Low-Cost Solar into Competitive Sustainable Aviation Fuel with Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquids. Energy Innovation, 2026. https://energyinnovation.org/report/indias-aviation-opportunity-turning-agricultural-residue-and-low-cost-solar-into-competitive-sustainable-aviation-fuel-with-power-and-biomass-to-liquids/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Brown |first1=Lydia |title=India's Aviation Opportunity: Turning Agricultural Residue and Low-Cost Solar into Competitive Sustainable Aviation Fuel with Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquids |publisher=Energy Innovation |date=23 June 2026 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/report/indias-aviation-opportunity-turning-agricultural-residue-and-low-cost-solar-into-competitive-sustainable-aviation-fuel-with-power-and-biomass-to-liquids/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{brown2026indias, author = {Brown, Lydia}, title = {{India's Aviation Opportunity: Turning Agricultural Residue and Low-Cost Solar into Competitive Sustainable Aviation Fuel with Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquids}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2026}, month = jun, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/report/indias-aviation-opportunity-turning-agricultural-residue-and-low-cost-solar-into-competitive-sustainable-aviation-fuel-with-power-and-biomass-to-liquids/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }