How Finnish giant Neste and Chevron Lummus just cracked the code on turning wood scraps into sustainable aviation fuel
Picture this: the leftover wood chips from your local sawmill, the corn stalks rotting in fields after harvest, and even old cardboard boxes could soon be powering commercial jets across the globe. What sounds like science fiction just became reality, thanks to a groundbreaking partnership between two energy industry heavyweights.
On June 11, 2025, Neste Corporation and Chevron Lummus Global made an announcement that could reshape how we think about sustainable aviation fuel. Their successful pilot program has proven that lignocellulosic biomass essentially plant waste that’s been sitting around with nowhere to go, can be efficiently converted into high-quality renewable fuels.
This isn’t just another incremental improvement in green energy. It’s a potential game-changer that could unlock vast new sources of sustainable fuel just when the aviation industry desperately needs them.
The Problem: Aviation’s Carbon Headache
Let’s face it, airplanes are carbon-intensive machines. While electric cars are becoming mainstream and renewable energy is powering our homes, commercial aviation remains stubbornly dependent on fossil fuels. The aviation industry accounts for about 2-3% of global carbon emissions, and that number is growing as more people take to the skies.
Airlines have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, but here’s the catch: battery technology isn’t anywhere near capable of powering long-haul flights. Hydrogen planes are still experimental. That leaves sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as the most realistic near-term solution.
The problem? Current SAF production relies heavily on used cooking oil, animal fats, and purpose-grown crops. These feedstocks are limited and expensive, making SAF cost three to five times more than conventional jet fuel. Airlines want to go green, but the economics just don’t work yet.
That’s where this new breakthrough comes in.
What Exactly is Lignocellulosic Biomass?
Before diving into the technology, let’s decode the fancy scientific term. Lignocellulosic biomass is basically the structural part of plants – the tough, fibrous material that gives plants their strength. Think of it as nature’s scaffolding.
It’s found everywhere: wood chips from forestry operations, corn stalks left after harvest, wheat straw, rice husks, and even paper waste. The stuff we usually consider agricultural or industrial waste contains massive amounts of energy, but it’s been notoriously difficult to unlock.
Unlike the oils and fats currently used to make SAF, lignocellulosic materials are made up of complex sugars (cellulose), binding agents (lignin), and other structural compounds. Breaking these down into usable fuel has been like trying to extract gold from rock – theoretically possible but practically challenging and expensive.
Until now.
The Neste-Chevron Partnership: An Unlikely Alliance
Neste might not be a household name in many countries, but in the renewable fuels world, they’re the undisputed champion. This Finnish company produces more sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel than anyone else on the planet. “The company is the world’s leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel, enabling its customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” according to their latest announcement.
Chevron Lummus Global, on the other hand, brings decades of expertise in refining technology. As a joint venture between energy giant Chevron and technology specialist Lummus, they know how to turn laboratory breakthroughs into industrial-scale operations.
The partnership makes perfect sense: Neste knows renewable fuels, Chevron Lummus knows large-scale processing technology. Together, they’ve tackled one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
Proof of Concept Success
The companies recently announced they’ve successfully completed their proof of concept phase, and the results are encouraging. “The piloting results indicate that the new technology could offer a significant performance improvement over existing technologies for lignocellulosic raw materials,” according to their joint statement.
What makes this significant is that previous attempts to convert lignocellulosic biomass into fuel have struggled with efficiency and cost. The complex structure of these materials requires sophisticated processing to break down the tough cellular walls and convert the contents into usable hydrocarbons.
The new technology appears to have cracked this code. While the companies haven’t revealed all the technical details (trade secrets and all), the process likely involves advanced pretreatment to break down the biomass structure, followed by sophisticated conversion techniques to transform the resulting compounds into jet fuel-quality hydrocarbons.
Lars Peter Lindfors, Neste’s Senior Vice President of Technology and Innovation, emphasized the potential impact: “Unlocking the potential of these promising raw materials would allow us to meet the growing demand of renewable fuels in the long-term and contribute to ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.”
Why This Matters More Than You Think
The implications of this breakthrough extend far beyond the laboratory. Here’s why this could be a genuine turning point:
Massive Raw Material Availability: Unlike used cooking oil or purpose-grown crops, lignocellulosic waste is everywhere. Every country with forests, farms, or paper industries has abundant supplies. The global availability is measured in billions of tons annually – enough to potentially supply a significant portion of aviation fuel needs.
Environmental Double Win: This technology doesn’t just create clean fuel; it also deals with waste that would otherwise rot in landfills or be burned in the open, releasing methane and carbon dioxide. Converting waste to fuel is the ultimate circular economy success story.
Economic Potential: If the technology can be scaled cost-effectively, it could dramatically reduce SAF production costs. Lignocellulosic waste is essentially free – you’re solving someone’s disposal problem while creating valuable fuel.
Energy Security: Countries could potentially become more energy self-sufficient by converting their own agricultural and forestry waste into fuel, reducing dependence on imported oil.
The Road to Commercial Scale
Of course, proving something works in a pilot plant is very different from building commercial-scale facilities. The companies acknowledge this challenge, stating they’re “currently validating the technology and targeting readiness to scale up the technology to commercial scale.”
This scaling process typically involves several stages. First comes the demonstration phase, where larger pilot plants prove the technology works at bigger volumes. Then comes the first commercial plant, which serves as a proof-of-concept for full-scale production. Finally, if all goes well, multiple commercial facilities get built around the world.
Rajesh Samarth, CEO of Chevron Lummus Global, sounds optimistic about the prospects: “We are confident this partnership will pave a new pathway for producing renewable fuels, leveraging our versatile and scalable hydroprocessing technology platform.”
Challenges Still Ahead
While the breakthrough is exciting, several hurdles remain before lignocellulosic SAF becomes mainstream:
Technical Complexity: Processing lignocellulosic biomass is inherently more complex than processing oils and fats. The technology needs to be robust enough for 24/7 industrial operation with minimal downtime.
Supply Chain Logistics: Collecting, transporting, and storing bulky biomass waste is challenging. Unlike liquid feedstocks, solid biomass takes up lots of space and can degrade during storage.
Economic Viability: The process needs to be cost-competitive with conventional jet fuel, or at least close enough that carbon pricing and regulations make it attractive.
Quality Consistency: SAF must meet strict aviation fuel specifications. The technology needs to consistently produce fuel that meets these standards regardless of variations in the biomass feedstock.
Regulatory Approval: New fuel production processes require extensive testing and certification before airlines can use the resulting fuel.
The Bigger Picture: Transforming Aviation
This breakthrough comes at a crucial time for the aviation industry. Airlines are under increasing pressure from regulators, investors, and passengers to reduce their carbon footprint. The European Union has already mandated that SAF must comprise 2% of aviation fuel by 2025, rising to 70% by 2050. Similar regulations are being considered worldwide.
Currently, SAF production capacity is nowhere near sufficient to meet these targets. Neste’s annual renewable fuels production capacity will be increased to 6.8 million tons in 2027, but global aviation fuel consumption exceeds 300 million tons annually. The gap is enormous.
Lignocellulosic biomass could be the missing piece of the puzzle. Unlike other SAF feedstocks, it’s available in quantities that could theoretically supply a large percentage of aviation fuel needs.
What Happens Next?
The next few years will be critical for this technology. If Neste and Chevron Lummus can successfully scale their process to commercial production, we could see the first lignocellulosic SAF production facilities operating by the early 2030s.
Other companies are also working on similar technologies, so this breakthrough could accelerate the entire field. Competition often drives faster innovation and cost reductions.
For consumers, the impact might not be immediately visible. SAF looks and performs identically to conventional jet fuel – it’s a “drop-in” replacement that requires no changes to aircraft or infrastructure. But behind the scenes, flights could gradually become much more sustainable.
The Investment Opportunity
This breakthrough hasn’t gone unnoticed by investors. The renewable fuels sector has been attracting billions in investment as companies rush to build production capacity ahead of regulatory mandates.
Lignocellulosic SAF represents a particularly attractive opportunity because of the massive feedstock availability and potential cost advantages. Unlike other renewable fuel feedstocks that compete with food production or have limited supply, waste biomass is abundant and cheap.
Early movers in this space could gain significant competitive advantages as the technology matures and scales up.
A Turning Point for Sustainable Aviation
The successful pilot program by Neste and Chevron Lummus represents more than just another incremental improvement in green technology. It’s potentially the breakthrough that makes large-scale sustainable aviation fuel production economically viable.
By unlocking the energy potential in lignocellulosic waste, this technology could simultaneously solve multiple problems: reducing aviation emissions, dealing with agricultural and forestry waste, and creating new economic opportunities in rural areas.
The path from pilot plant to global implementation won’t be easy or quick. Technical challenges remain, costs need to come down, and supply chains need to be built. But for the first time, the aviation industry has a realistic pathway to significantly reduce its carbon footprint without waiting for revolutionary new aircraft technologies.
In a few decades, we might look back at this announcement as the moment sustainable aviation became not just possible, but inevitable. The age of flying on forest waste may have just begun.
