Japan Airlines (JAL) and European aircraft manufacturer Airbus have joined a Japanese joint venture to produce bioethanol from domestic woody material, for use as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Joining the project will help JAL meet its target of replacing 10pc of its conventional jet fuel with SAF by 2030, JAL announced on 17 March. It will also help Airbus to achieve its net zero emissions goal by 2050.
JAL will build supply chains of biofuel to support the project, and Airbus will help obtain international certification for the woody material-based fuel as SAF.
The project was originally proposed in February 2023 by Japanese paper producer Nippon Paper Industries, trading house Sumitomo and domestic biorefinery venture Green Earth Institute. The companies agreed in February 2025 to set up a joint venture, Morisora Bio Refinery, to push forward with a plan to develop domestic SAF supply chains.
The companies plan to launch the joint venture in March and start producing bioethanol from local wood chips at Nippon Paper's Iwanuma Mill in the country's northeastern Miyagi prefecture in 2027. Commercial operations are scheduled to begin by around 2030.
Morisora will supply bioethanol mainly for SAF production, with expectations that it will be also used in gasoline blending, fuel cells, cosmetics and chemical feedstock.
