Singapore's Changi Airport is one of the most important hubs for international air traffic. Time and again, it has come out on top when it comes to being named the best airport in the world. Passengers enjoy the shopping, large rest areas, the abundance of restaurants, the impressive organization. Unbeknownst to them, however, far-reaching changes are taking place: Singapore, for example, the extremely rich tropical island without its own mineral resources, wants to make its airport the world market leader for "green fuel". "We will significantly improve our port and our airport," says Lawrence Wong, the city-state's next prime minister.

Christoph Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia/Pacific, based in Singapore.

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A few days ago, Singapore opened the world's largest production of aviation fuel from recycled raw materials – including frying oil from restaurants or animal fats. The Finnish refinery group Neste Oyj has invested a good 1.6 billion euros in the site for this purpose. With an annual production capacity of one million tonnes of synthetic aviation fuel (SAF) in the Southeast Asian city-state, Neste's capacity has increased tenfold. Nevertheless, it corresponds to only about 0.35 percent of the total consumption of the industry. Thanks in part to government aid, the Finns have more than doubled the area of the new plant. Their mix of materials is becoming more sophisticated: In the meantime, they are also trying to use oil in the wastewater of palm oil mills and the use of algae.

Among other things, hydrogen is now also being produced on their site, which will be used for the processes. This helps Singapore's transport hub with its port and airports: it also needs SAF to achieve its goals of decarbonisation by 2050, explained Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong. Next year, the Finns also want to increase their SAF emissions at the Rotterdam site by 500,000 tonnes. At the end of 2026, it could grow to 1.2 million tonnes in the Netherlands, overtaking Singapore. "Of course, this is in no way sufficient," says Singapore's government with regard to the new plant. "But it's certainly necessary."

Fuel from edible oils

By July, the state-owned airline Singapore Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot will be testing the new aviation fuel made from residual materials in a one-year trial. The competition from American Airlines, Ryanair, Malaysia Airlines or Etihad is also trying similar concoctions. In its group, Lufthansa uses SAF "from biogenic residues, for example from used cooking oils". For years, she has been one of the world's largest buyers of SAF and has "secured sustainable kerosene for a quarter of a billion dollars in order to be able to meet the foreseeable increase in demand in the coming years," she explains. Regions and countries such as the European Union, but also Japan, Great Britain and America are aiming for the use of SAF in the order of 6 to 10 percent by 2030.

Logisticians are also working their way forward: The Swiss company Kuehne & Nagel bought up around 7 percent of global SAF production last year. "There are now a number of approved processes for the production of synthetic kerosene, for example based on vegetable oils, used fats or wood waste (biofuels). What is lacking in Europe is a sufficient number of biorefineries to meet the demand. In addition, sustainable kerosene is even more expensive to produce than conventional aviation fuel," says Siegfried Knecht, CEO of Aireg, a lobby group that Deutsche Post DHL also co-founded.

In a study, the consultancy Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimates that the use of SAF will increase the price of tickets for economy class on a "typical long-haul route" such as Frankfurt to Singapore by 36 euros. "For airlines, the addition of SAF would mean up to 16 percent higher fuel costs per ton compared to pure fossil kerosene, which also becomes more expensive due to CO2 taxation," the analysis says. "Between 2025 and 2035, typical European premium airlines can expect up to $8 billion in cost premiums from the use of SAF, while European low-cost airlines could expect up to $610 million more."