IATA Assesses SAF Prospects in Uzbekistan as Walsh Calls for Scaling Up Production

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Willie Walsh, Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has commented on the first projects for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, assessing their current prospects and challenges.

According to Walsh, existing initiatives are being implemented on a relatively small scale, which makes production costly. He emphasized that scaling up output is the key step to reducing costs and ensuring the economic viability of SAF projects.

Walsh noted that any investment in SAF is welcome, stressing that initiatives undertaken by regional governments create new business opportunities and stimulate economic growth. He underlined the importance of a comprehensive approach to industry development, including the use of various types of feedstock and the search for new sources to expand production capacity.

Such an approach, he said, would enable countries in the region to fully harness the potential of SAF, reduce production costs, and enhance the investment attractiveness of the aviation sector.

It is worth recalling that Allied Biofuels FE LLC Uzbekistan has signed an agreement with the government of the Khorezm region concerning land and water resources for the implementation of a project to build a bioprocessing complex in the Tuproqqalinsky district. The total investment in the project is estimated at US$5.9 billion.

The project предусматривает the establishment of Central Asia’s first fully integrated zero-emissions aviation fuel production facility. Once operational, the plant is expected to produce annually 382,000 tonnes of SAF, 152,000 tonnes of electro-synthetic e-SAF, and 11,000 tonnes of green diesel, based on 2 GW PEM electrolyzers.

The initiative aims to create a new climate-oriented aviation fuel supply chain in Uzbekistan and to strengthen the role of the Khorezm region as a hub for sustainable energy and industrial innovation.