Singapore Airlines (SIA) has agreed to buy up to 4,800 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) over three years from Aether Fuels, a Singapore-based company that makes fuel from waste carbon.

Deliveries will begin in 2028 from Project Beacon, Aether’s planned commercial plant within energy and chemicals company Aster’s refining complex on Pulau Bukom in Singapore. SIA is the first airline to buy SAF from the project and says it is its first purchase of SAF made with technology that converts waste carbon into aviation fuel.

Most SAF today comes from lipid-based feedstocks such as used cooking oil through a process known as HEFA. Aether’s process is meant to offer an alternative. It can use any feedstock convertible to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane or hydrogen, including captured CO₂, industrial waste gases, biogas, gasified municipal solid waste and waste biomass. At Project Beacon, the fuel will be made from biomethane and industrial waste gases.

The agreement is binding and follows a memorandum of understanding signed last year. “When we signed our MOU with Singapore Airlines last year, Project Beacon had not yet been announced,” said Conor Madigan, Co-Founder and CEO of Aether Fuels. He called the binding deal “an important next step and a strong signal of committed demand.” Lee Wen Fen, Chief Sustainability Officer at SIA, said the purchase is “integral to SIA’s ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

The deal’s timing matters. Deliveries are about two years away, and the plant has not been reported as built. The announcement does not give a price, the share of SIA’s fuel needs the volume would cover, or the carbon savings the fuel is expected to deliver compared with conventional jet fuel. Aether Fuels was founded in 2022.

Aviation is among the hardest sectors to decarbonise, and airlines across Asia, including Indian carriers, are looking for SAF supply. Deals that tie fuel to specific, as-yet-unbuilt plants show how much of the sector’s progress still depends on projects reaching construction.