TECHNOECONOMIC ASSESSMENT FOR THE PRODUCTION OF RENEWABLE AVIATION FUEL FROM AN INTEGRATED ETHANOL PLANT

Resumo

The growing global demand for decarbonization of the transportation sector, especially in commercial aviation, is promoting the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuels as a short-term and medium-term alternative to fossil fuels. This study presents a technical-economic assessment for the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel from an integrated sugarcane ethanol biorefinery (1G+2G) in Brazil, using an Integrated Linear Programming model implemented in LINGO v.20. The model integrates physical, economic, and logistics submodels, optimizing material and energy flows, plant location, costs, and revenues. The results demonstrate that SAF demand is fully covered in all cases, with a constant production of 5.24 Mtons/year, confirming the viability of the proposed configurations. The production of renewable electricity, diesel, and gasoline varies between scenarios, while the valorization of vinasse into biomethane (scenarios 2 and 4) maximizes energy use and soil productivity. The area needed to grow sugarcane exclusively for SAF would be 2.68 million hectares, which entails environmental challenges and competition with other uses. Minimum selling prices (USD 1.69–1.75/L) are highly competitive compared to international alternatives. Revenues depend primarily on SAF (79–84%), while raw material costs represent the largest component (64–72%).