The hardy, bean-producing pongamia tree is carving out a niche in the sustainable aviation fuel industry, with the potential for producing human food and animal feed as well (courtesy of Idemitsu Kosan).

Ancient Pongamia Tree Breathes New Life Into Sustainable Aviation Fuel

January 10, 20253 hours ago Tina Casey 0 Comments

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Biofuel stakeholders are angling for a piece of the sustainable aviation fuel market, and the pongamia tree may hold the key to a more meaningful use of the word “sustainable.” A hardy ancient species native to India, pongamia is an oil-producing species that has the potential to avoid the worst excesses of conventional biofuel crops, and it can also provide a new source of human and animal feed.

The Pongamia Tree And Sustainable Agriculture

In terms of sustainability, the biofuel field has proved to be a mixed bag. Clearing forests and other diverse habitats to establish a monoculture energy crop is not a particularly sustainable model, especially not when substantial support from pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers is involved.

The pongamia tree is among the next-generation energy crops to offer a more sustainable model. It first crossed the CleanTechnica radar back in 2012 under the name pongam, when we took note of the California startup Terviva. The company was focusing in on replanting “abused” pineapple plantations with pongamia, where the tree’s nitrogen-fixing skills could go to work replenishing nutrients in the soil. The company was also exploring states like Texas and Florida, where citrus groves are withering under an onslaught of disease and climate impacts.

“That underscores the potential for biofuel crops to play a role in soil restoration projects on lands that are no longer fit to grow food, rather than competing for land with food crops,” CleanTechnica observed.

To gild the sustainability lily, pongam blossoms are also known to attract honeybees. The pest-resistant tree can thrive without the excess of chemical inputs that characterize modern agriculture, making it an amenable host for other non-destructive insects as well.

A Faster Path To Sustainable Air Travel

Of course, biofuels are not the only way to free the aviation fuel supply chain from fossil fuels. One could take a bus or a train, for example, or conduct business remotely. Still, alternative transportation can only replace a portion of air travel. The aviation industry needs to decarbonize itself, and the going has been achingly slow.

Battery-electric and fuel cell electric aircraft are a long term solution that has barely begun to emerge at the small end of the aviation scale. For larger aircraft, a sustainable drop-in replacement for liquid fuel presents a more immediate solution that leverages existing aircraft technology and fuel infrastructure, too.

That brings us back around to Terviva. The company has been very busy over the past 13 years, developing pongam derivatives into oil, flour, proteins, and other products aside from aircraft fuel. Another key area of focus is the development of high yield, cold-tolerant strains of pongamia to enable widespread cultivation. Terviva emphasizes that it aims to maintain compatibility with the principles of low impact, regenerative agriculture while also maximizing yield.

In the latest news, Terviva has joined forces with the energy-diverse Japanese firm Idemitsu Kosan and the Australian coal company Stanmore to trial a plantation of pongamia in Queensland.

“This collaboration leverages Terviva’s scalable tree production and Idemitsu’s expertise in fuels to accelerate the global production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) with oil from Terviva’s proprietary pongamia technology,” Terviva explained in an unreleased press statement emailed CleanTechnica earlier this week (Idemitsu has already released the news to Japanese audiences and it is scheduled for wide release on January 14).

The aim of the project is to assess how well pongamia trees can grow in a “non-typical cropping area.” In addition to yielding bio-based oil for sustainable aviation fuel, the payoff is expected to include carbon credits for afforestation, meaning the creation of a new forest where none previously existed, at least not in recent years. The partners also expect to explore using pongamia seed shells for biomass power plants, as well as pulp and other byproducts for animal feed, among other potential uses.

The Long Road To Sustainable Aviation Fuel Is Through Equity And Responsibility

Sustainable aviation fuel is beginning to break into the mainstream, and Idemitsu aims to ride the wave with an assist from pongamia. The company has set an initial goal for SAF production at its Tokuyama Complex sometime in fiscal year 2028 and it has tapped pongamia to feature in its bio-based supply chain.

“Pongamia’s ability as a high yielding oilseed crop is considered promising as a measure to secure raw materials for the long-term stable and economical production of SAF using HEFA technology,” Idemitsu explains, referring to the company’s “Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids” technology for converting fats and oils to sustainable aviation fuels.

In addition to the Idemitsu hookup, Terviva also announced an investor partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation in December of 2023. In that announcement, Terviva focused attention to the potential for drawing social equity and local benefits into the sustainable aviation fuel supply chain.

“Terviva seeks to create transparent and equitable supply chains of pongamia trees in subtropical regions of the world, using reforestation, agroforestry and orchard models,” Terviva explained.

“The oil is ISCC Plus & EU Certified and the wild harvest supply chain and crush production meet RED II and global sustainability criteria,” the company added, referring to the updated renewable energy directive adopted by the European Union.

In terms of competing energy crops, Terviva notes that a pongamia is a no-till crop that can potentially yield the same amount of oil from one acre as produced by US soybeans on four acres. The company also calculates that the carbon intensity of its biofuel is similar to that of used cooking oil.

Last year Terviva also nailed down an agreement with Chevron Renewable Energy Group. “The new arrangement signals Terviva’s strategic growth and global scalability as well as the advancement of pongamia as a lower carbon resource for biofuels production,” Terviva explained in a press statement dated October 15 of 2024. The company also noted that it currently has 2,000 acres under cultivation in the US and Australia.

Here in the US, in particular, pongamia could offer beleaguered citrus farmers an opportunity to switch gears. In a long form piece last summer, Associated Press reporter Freida Frisaro noted that Terviva’s hardy pongamia trees are beginning to repopulate derelict citrus orchards in Florida and other “citrus belt” states, where the citrus industry has been bedeviled by the spread of diseases like citrus canker and citrus greening as well as the rising impact of weather-related damage, the 1989 freeze and the 2022 storm Hurricane Ian being two examples.

This week another severe bout of weather is hitting Florida and other parts of the US south in the form of a deep freeze, so hold on to your hats…

Follow me via LinkTree, or @tinamcasey on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Photo (cropped): The hardy, bean-producing pongamia tree is carving out a niche in the sustainable aviation fuel industry, with the potential for producing human food and animal feed as well (courtesy of Idimetsu Kosan Co., Ltd.).