The SAF Podcast

SAF Investor
  • 4.0 (2)
  • Aviation
  • Weekly

Welcome to The SAF Podcast, the only podcast on the internet that exclusively covers sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). So if you want to find out the real issues and challenges are for commercialising and scaling SAF production, look no further.Every week we will be hearing from senior industry leaders who are actively shaping the future of SAF and aviation.  Hosted by Oscar Henderson and brought to you by the team at SAF Investor. Connect with us at www.safinvestor.com

  1. 1d ago

    Alex Zorniger | Power to Hydrogen (P2H2) | Electrolysers and living and dying by the electricity bill

    Why does eSAF live or die on the electricity bill? Alex Zorniger of Power to Hydrogen (P2H2) explains electrolysers in plain English, and why they matter to power-to-liquid SAF.  In this episode we cover: Why hydrogen makes up 50 to 60% of the cost of a gallon of eSAF, and why electricity is around 70% of that hydrogen costSOEC vs PEM vs alkaline vs AEM: What do these all mean, how each electrolyser works, where each one wins, and what the market share looks like todayWhy intermittent renewables favour membrane-based electrolysers, and why SOEC suits steady sources like geothermalA quick calculation any developer can use to test whether a project’s hydrogen cost stacks upWhat bankability means for new electrolyser technology, and why banks want proven scaleHow to tackle the the challenge of performance guarantees.Why pressure and purity matter when integrating hydrogen into the SAF production processWhether you’re a developer, investor or newcomer to eSAF, this is the essential guide to the technology at the heart of power-to-liquids. SAF Investor London returns on 23 to 24 February 2027, bringing together the investors and stakeholders scaling sustainable aviation fuel finance. Find out more about the conference here: https://www.safinvestor.com/event/149733/london-2027/

  2. Oct 14

    Stewart Stewart | Nova Pangaea Technologies | Boring is beautiful

    On this week's episode of The SAF Podcast we welcome back Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT) for the first time since 2023. 10 months into his role as CEO, Stewart Stewart, we discuss what attracted him to SAF and get some updates from NPT. We cover a variety of topics including: Why energy ventures fail: it’s rarely the chemistry, it’s the handoffs between science, engineering, finance and the first commercial plant. A reminder of NPT's REFNOVA process which turns forestry and agricultural waste into second-generation sugars and biochar. The sugars become ethanol, which goes to SAF via alcohol-to-jet, while the biochar locks carbon into soil, making the fuel carbon negative on a lifecycle basis.The campaign two at the Wilton demonstration plant in Teesside delivered more than three days of stable, continuous operation, validated externally by Fichtner. His verdict: “boring is beautiful”, since every uneventful hour turns investor imagination into operating data.We discuss what is next up on the horizon as the NPT scale up continues. Project Speedbird, with IAG/British Airways and LanzaJet, gives the company a clear route to market and a single killer app. Nova Pangaea provides the ethanol, LanzaJet the alcohol-to-jet technology, and IAG the offtake.On LanzaJet’s Freedom Pines facility, he’s watching closely but notes Nova Pangaea has fallback options: other alcohol-to-jet plants and road fuelsStewart argues the industry should reward emissions reduction, not just litres produced. Under the UK SAF mandate, Nova Pangaea can monetise its biochar sequestration through additional SAF certificates, delivering two to three times the carbon impact of other fuels.Sceptical of shipping feedstock around the world: with around 80% of European used cooking oil and tallow imported from Southeast Asia Stewart highlights HEFA supply security and sees book-and-claim as the more honest decarbonisation route.Finally we touch on NPT's continual fundraising and how much time this ends up taking from Stewart's schedule.Check out the full episode to find out all the details.

  3. Oct 7

    Jeffrey Altman | Finadvice | You need a crisis to have the renaissance

    This week's episode of The SAF Podcast steps beyond SAF to ask a bigger question: what do today's energy shocks mean for investors? Jeffrey Altman, Senior Advisor, Finadvice joins Oscar and suggests the real crisis isn't the price of energy but the price of dependence. Oscar and Jeff discuss: Why this energy crisis differs from past ones, and why there's no quick way to decouple our existing energy supply chain reliance. Hybrid war, and why investors should start pricing in downtime.The shift from asset-light bets to capital-intensive investment in domestic manufacturing, alternative fuels and critical infrastructure.Why policy certainty is the biggest lever, and which governments are sending the right signals.What defence buyers actually want from SAF: reliable, commercially competitive fuel, not subsidy.How reliance on Asian supply is pushing the case for onshore and nearshore production.Why family offices could be the Medicis of the next innovation wave.Check out this episode if you want to to hear a deeper discussion around current energy constraints and how to restructure them.

  4. Sep 30

    Dario Formenti | ISCC | "It is not just a stamp" Busting SAF certification myths

    Certification has a reputation for being complicated. Dario Formenti, senior systems manager - sustainable fuels,  International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) thinks that's overdone, and explains why. On this week's episode of The SAF Podcast, Oscar and Dario cover why certification is far more than a stamp on paper. It underpins market access, compliance claims and the credibility SAF needs to scale. They also discuss: How ISCC handles e-SAF and RFNBOs, including its pre-certification framework for early moversWhere ISCC PLUS, the credit transfer system and combined audits fit inThe push for EU RED and CORSIA dual conformanceBook and claim, and how to guard against double countingHow to prepare for an auditWhere certification is heading over the next three to five yearsDario is a chemist who has worked in ISCC's aviation and maritime team since 2022. If you produce, trade or buy SAF, this one is for you. Certification is the bedrock on which a trustworthy SAF industry is built. Understanding the key factors behind strong traceability is vital and check this episode out to get up to speed.  If you enjoyed this, check out our free newsletter which you can sign up receive here: https://www.safinvestor.com/newsletter/

  5. Sep 23

    Manshu Agarwal, HutanBio: Algae's one in a trillion chance for success

    This week Oscar is joined by Manshu Agarwal, CEO, HutanBio a UK based company aiming to commercialise the use of Algae as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel production.  Manshu has watched the algae story play out once already. A chemical engineer by training, he cut his teeth at Sapphire Energy and then Synthetic Genomics — two ventures that between them raised hundreds of millions of dollars chasing algae biofuels, only to run into the same wall: the biology simply wasn't good enough to get costs down. Now at HutanBio, he's back for round two, armed with what he believes is the missing piece. That piece is Spherica — an entirely new class of algae, discovered after HutanBio's founder spent a decade bioprospecting the oceans, screening a trillion organisms to find roughly 400 candidates and one genuine outlier. Spherica has a thick cell wall and packs around 300 thylakoid layers versus the 6-10 found in typical strains — translating into three times the oil productivity. Agrawal walks through why that matters commercially: HutanBio is targeting under $1/litre at small scale and around 40 cents/litre (roughly $62/barrel) at full scale, using vertical, low-footprint photobioreactor systems developed first in Malaysia and now being scaled toward coastal deserts, starting with an MOU in Oman.  He's candid about algae's credibility problem after two decades of hype and underdelivery — but argues the underlying case, heavy transport still has no cost-competitive liquid fuel alternative, hasn't gone away, and that Spherica is the platform that finally gives algae a real shot at cost parity. Check out the full discussion on your usual podcasting platforms.

  6. Sep 16

    Ryan Jackson, Cielo Waste Solution: Show me the carbon credits

    On this week's episode of The SAF Podcast, Ryan Jackson, CEO, Cielo Waste Solutions joins Oscar to discuss the company's project platform to constructing SAF projects.  Jackson unpacks Cielo's flagship Nahoonai project, developed in partnership with the Lheidi T’enneh First Nation through Tano T’enneh Enterprises — a co-ownership structure he argues de-risks permitting and helps unlock financing through Crown corporations like the Canada Infrastructure Bank.  Alongside the favorable terms this partnership opens up Jackson discusses the project's revenue model and why Canada is in his mind the best place to develop a project, thanks to the stackable federal and state level credits available. This means Cielo can plan to sell their SAF at parity with Jet A1 and then generate the majority of its revenue through these credits.  We finish the episode by evaluating the realistic decarbonisation targets for aviation to achieve as well as the big challenges that the SAF industry is trying to solve.

  7. Aug 5

    Hydrocarbon Engineering: The accident that revolutionised (SAF) brewing

    This week Khaled, Ramon and Miguel of Hydrocarbon Engineering join Oscar on The SAF Podcast to tell the story behind their accidental discovery: a reactor built to  produce bio-oil that, instead, yielded a diesel-like hydrocarbon in a single step.  Years of reverse engineering later, the Valencia-based team has turned that anomaly into a feedstock-agnostic, single-stage hydrothermal process for producing SAF, renewable diesel and other hydrocarbons — one that removes the need for a separate hydrogen source entirely.  They discuss the ambiguity of self-assessed TRLs, early interest from British Airways/Iberia, a build-and-license commercialisation strategy, and their target of bringing SAF production costs down to around $1,500 per tonne, against today's $6,000–$9,000 range, as they push from TRL 6 towards a first commercial plant at a biomethane site.

  8. Jul 29

    Iris Warnaar, SkyNRG and Mark Kelly, ICF: SAF Market Outlook 2026

    For the third year running, Oscar sits down to unpack the 2026 SAF Market Outlook report once again with Mark Kelly (ICF) and this year with Iris Warnaar (SkyNRG). The headline numbers: SAF demand is forecast to reach 12.8 million tonnes by 2030 (3.6% of jet fuel) and climb past 190 million tonnes by 2050, though US policy headwinds have pulled the near-term forecast down from last year's projections. On supply, 2030 capacity now stands at 18.5 million tonnes, creating a brief surplus before the market tightens again — and Asia has overtaken every other region to lead the global pipeline, largely to feed European demand. The conversation digs into the HEFA feedstock constraint that still hasn't gone away, genuine, if modest, progress on eSAF and alcohol-to-jet and China's evolving role as both supplier and its own energy security case study.  The episode closes with the third section of the report, a proper stress-test of the energy security argument that's dominated SAF conversations all year: real driver of investment, or narrative running ahead of the economics? Iris brings the optimism, Mark brings the risk register, and between them the picture that emerges is "positive but uneven" — with plenty left to sort out before the 2027 report rolls around. If you have not already read the full report you can find it here: https://skynrg.com/2026-saf-market-outlook/

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Ratings & Reviews

4
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About

Welcome to The SAF Podcast, the only podcast on the internet that exclusively covers sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). So if you want to find out the real issues and challenges are for commercialising and scaling SAF production, look no further.Every week we will be hearing from senior industry leaders who are actively shaping the future of SAF and aviation.  Hosted by Oscar Henderson and brought to you by the team at SAF Investor. Connect with us at www.safinvestor.com

Information

  • Creator
    SAF Investor
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    112
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The SAF Podcast
  • Show Website
    The SAF Podcast

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