EcoCeres has joined forces with SF Group and China National Aviation Fuel Group (CNAF) to launch a commercial sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) fuelling programme aimed at reducing emissions from China’s rapidly expanding air cargo and express logistics sector.
The initiative, developed in collaboration with the Second Research Institute of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CASRI), brings together renewable fuel production, aviation fuel infrastructure and commercial cargo operations. Under the programme, SAF produced by EcoCeres will be blended by CNAF and supplied for outbound freighter flights operated by SF Airlines.
The SAF is expected to deliver greenhouse gas emissions reductions of up to 90 per cent compared with conventional jet fuel, highlighting the potential for renewable aviation fuels to play a larger role in reducing emissions from one of the transport sector's hardest-to-abate segments.
Ezhou Huahu International Airport in Hubei Province is at the centre of the programme. The airport serves as the principal cargo hub for SF Airlines and is also positioned as a strategic aviation gateway under China's 14th Five-Year Plan for Port Development. Its role in the initiative connects SAF supply with a high-volume commercial air cargo operation, providing a real-world setting for demonstrating the fuel's application at scale.
The programme builds on EcoCeres' earlier SAF pilot initiative in China, known as Project Spark. During the pilot, SAF manufactured at the company's Zhangjiagang facility was blended by CNAF and used to fuel commercial flights at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. The exercise demonstrated the operational feasibility of moving SAF through the aviation fuel value chain, from production and transportation to blending and final deployment.
The latest initiative goes a step further by linking SAF supply directly with recurring cargo demand. By incorporating the fuel into existing aviation infrastructure and commercial flight operations, the partners aim to demonstrate that lower-carbon aviation can be integrated into established logistics systems without requiring an entirely new fuelling network.
A further component of the programme is AnchorTrace, an environmental attributes platform jointly developed by CNAF and CASRI. The platform is designed to support the lifecycle tracking, registration and retirement of environmental attributes associated with SAF.
The combination of physical fuel deployment and digital environmental attribute management is intended to improve transparency around the emissions benefits generated by SAF use. It also provides a framework for tracking the environmental performance of the fuel across its lifecycle and strengthening the verifiability of emissions-reduction claims.
For China's air cargo sector, the initiative comes as express logistics and freight aviation continue to expand while pressure grows to reduce the carbon intensity of transport operations. Aviation remains particularly difficult to decarbonise because of the energy density required for long-distance flight, making drop-in fuels such as SAF an important component of the industry's transition strategy.
“This project demonstrates how SAF can pragmatically and efficiently connect renewable fuel producers, aviation fuel infrastructure providers, and cargo operators in a results-oriented way,” said James Tam, co-chairman of EcoCeres. “By integrating SAF into existing aviation fuel systems, we are working together with our partners to build a replicable, scalable and verifiable pathway for lower emissions air cargo development in China.”
The partnership also illustrates a broader shift in China's clean-energy transition, where decarbonisation initiatives are increasingly moving beyond pilot projects towards commercial applications that connect technology providers with established industrial and logistics networks.
By combining EcoCeres' renewable fuel production capabilities, CNAF's aviation fuel infrastructure, SF Airlines' cargo operations and CASRI's environmental attribute tracking capabilities, the programme establishes an integrated model for SAF deployment. The partners intend to use the initiative to demonstrate how renewable aviation fuel can be incorporated into commercial air cargo operations while maintaining traceability and measurable environmental benefits.
As China seeks to lower emissions from hard-to-abate transport sectors, the programme could provide a blueprint for expanding SAF adoption across aviation and express logistics, potentially supporting a broader transition towards lower-carbon air freight.
