South Africa-based Sasol Ltd. announced April 9 it has become the first company worldwide to receive international approval for its 100% synthetic jet fuel produced by its proprietary coal-to-liquids process.

Sasol's CTL product will be the first fully synthetic fuel to be approved for use in commercial airliners, said the company. "This marks a significant development in the adoption of clean burning alternative fuels for the aviation industry; engine-out emissions of Sasol's jet fuel are lower than those from jet fuel derived from crude oil due to its limited sulphur content," said the company.

Faced with higher oil prices, various U.S. airlines have shown interest in CTL fuels over the past couple of years and the U.S. Air Force has been experimenting with the use of such fuels in its B-52 bombers due to a need to get secure forms of domestic fuel. The Air Force would like to get a private developer to build a CTL facility at its Malmstrom base in Montana.

"Approval of Sasol's CTL fuel for commercial aviation is also a milestone in the effort to secure domestic energy supply for South Africa and other countries with significant domestic coal and natural gas reserves; Sasol's transformative technology will allow these countries to monetize natural resources and increase energy security," said Sasol.

Sasol official Pat Davies said, "This is an historic breakthrough — winning approval for a transportation fuel that is 100% synthetic. This approval by the international aviation fuel authorities recognizes the absolute need to develop aviation fuel from feedstocks other than crude-oil in order to meet the world's growing needs."

For the past nine years, Sasol has supplied a fuel mixture composed of a CTL component blended with crude oil derived kerosene to international airlines operating from OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. Based on the success of the alternative fuel blend and following rigorous testing and evaluation, international aviation fuel authorities including the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence have approved Sasol's wholly synthetic jet fuel as Jet A-1 fuel for commercial use in all types of turbine aircraft.

The current approval covers jet fuel produced at Sasol's Synfuels facility in Secunda, South Africa. Sasol jet fuel products that will also be submitted for sanction include those out of the Oryx GTL plant in Qatar, a joint venture GTL plant in Nigeria and potential CTL ventures in the U.S., China and India, Sasol added. GTL stands for gas-to-liquids, where regular natural gas, instead of gasified coal, is used as the liquids feedstock. Sasol noted that research is also underway to find an effective process to produce synthetic fuel from biomass to further improve environmental sustainability.