Green jet fuel

Hormuz shock sparks defense concerns and a push for green jet fuel

Synthetic fuel producers want Europe to ramp up production to overcome its dependency on fossil fuel from the Gulf.

By Tommaso Lecca and Jacopo Barigazzi

The war against Iran is exposing a critical weakness for Europe’s militaries: it imports over 90 percent of the crude converted to jet fuel, which could leave aircraft grounded in a prolonged crisis.

Thanks to the war in Iran, kerosene spiked to an all-time high of $1,795 per ton on March 19, more than double what it was before the U.S. and Israeli strikes began.

One solution would be to ramp up the production of synthetic sustainable aviation fuel, known as eSAF, made by combining green hydrogen with captured CO2 to produce kerosene not made with fossil fuels. There is also pressure to increase sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), made from agricultural sources such as crop residues and waste oils and fats.

-

Militaries are already trying them out. France flew an NH90 military helicopter powered by SAF in 2023. A year ago, Norway said it was the first country to operate an F-35 fighter jet with fuel that contained a significant percentage of SAF.

“Over the last six months, the relevance of eSAF as a homegrown fuel, with a production supply chain fully in Europe, has really grown,” said Asmara Klein, head of public affairs for Amsterdam-based Zaffra, a joint venture that's received €350 million in financing to set up eSAF production in Germany.

The green fuel is also supposed to account for a growing share of kerosene used by commercial aviation under ReFuelEU regulation, but the military aspects are suddenly growing in importance thanks to Iran throttling oil exports flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Europe is not a place with abundant liquid fuels … we need to find the ways to secure those supply chains for us and our allies,” said Joe Rodden, CEO of the U.S.-based eSAF producer Lydian. 

On a recent trip to Europe, Rodden pitched the use of e-fuels to NATO officials.

“Part of our visit to Brussels was a dialog with NATO, an industry briefing for us to understand more about the operational requirements and for them to understand more about the technology capabilities and how that might be used in a defense context,” he told POLITICO.

As well as soaring prices, fuel supply security is also a worry.

-

“Europe is losing its refining capacity. It’s been systematically declining over the [last] 15-20 years,” Klein said. “If nothing is done, there will be no military planes that will be able to fly in case of conflict.”

Between 2009 and 2024, the number of active refineries decreased from 117 to 96, said a report from the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies.

Getting the military interested could boost the fortunes of eSAF producers. Currently the fuel is as much as 10 times as expensive as conventional jet fuel and still sparsely produced, despite an EU mandate that at least 1.2 percent of aviation fuel be made up of eSAF by the end of the decade.

"The interdependence of civilian and military fuel infrastructure means that the energy transition will undoubtedly impact military fuel readiness," said the Hague center report.

Military contractors are already making plans to boost eSAF production. Germany's Rheinmetall last year signed a deal with producer Ineratec.

"As fossil fuel supply chains become increasingly vulnerable in case of conflicts, the ability to produce carbon-neutral synthetic fuels on-site becomes essential," Rheinmetall said at the time of the announcement, adding: "Synthetic e-fuels are the only scalable solution that match the energy density, storability, and versatility of conventional fuels — making them indispensable for modern defense readiness." 

-

Those qualities of eSAF are well-known by the U.S. military.

During the country’s previous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington realized that “getting the fuel into those areas, even from the supply chains that they controlled … ends up with a very, very high cost,” Rodden said, adding that eSAF producers can contribute by bringing in refining capacity and “producing [eSAF] at the forward location.” 

Military use of e-fuels is not unprecedented.

“It happened twice,” aerospace and defense company Safran CEO Olivier Andriès told POLITICO, referring to Nazi Germany's use of synthetic fuel and South Africa's domestic production to overcome the oil embargo during apartheid. In both cases, “it was coming from coal, so it was not very ecological.”

However, Andriès was skeptical that the military applications of eSAF outweighs the civilian ones.

"The potential demand for military usage is way way way below the commercial demand; There is no comparison," he said. "To me the first priority is to make sure that we keep the trajectory on the commercial side for decarbonization."