Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) has secured India’s first international approval to advance commercial-scale production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at the operator’s 15-million tonne/year (tpy) integrated Panipat refining and chemical complex in Haryana, just north of New Delhi.
In mid-August, IOC received notice that the Panipat refinery’s production of SAF complies with ISCC System GmbH’s International Sustainability Carbon Certification (ISCC) standards, validating that SAF produced at the site meets the highest international sustainability and lifecycle carbon emission standards, the operator said.
Developed under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the ISCC CORSIA certification is a prerequisite for commercial-scale SAF production following rigorous assessment of the production’s lifecycle carbon emissions and traceability.
Alongside creating a clear pathway for Indian airlines to integrate the certified SAF production into their operations, IOC said the Panipat refinery’s ISCC CORSIA certification also will serve as a benchmark for other domestic refiners to scale up SAF production as part of India’s broader strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
In its annual 2024-25 annual report released on Aug. 6 covering the 12-month period from Apr. 1, 2024 – Mar. 31, 2025, IOC said it plans to establish India’s first commercial-scale SAF plant at Panipat with a proposed production capacity of 86.8 million tpy.
The proposed SAF plant will be equipped with LanzaJet Inc.’s alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology, which uses a feedstock of ethanol to produce low-emission, circular aviation fuel, according to the operator.
IOC said it plans to commission Panipat’s ATJ-SAF plant by 2027-28.
In addition, the operator said it is developing a co-processing SAF unit at the Panipat refinery to produce 735,000 tpy of SAF-blended aviation turbine fuel (ATF) from a feedstock of used cooking oil to further support India’s decarbonization efforts in the aviation sector.
Scheduled for startup in 2025-26, the Panipat co-processing plant will produce SAF-blended ATF with a 4% SAF blend, IOC said.
Panipat refinery capacity expansion
As part of IOC’s broader program of growing capacities at its refineries to help meet projections for ongoing rising demand for finished petroleum products through at least 2040, the Panipat refinery is currently undergoing a 10-million tpy expansion project to lift overall crude processing capacity at the site to 25 million tpy (OGJ Online, Aug. 12, 2024).
According to the operator’s latest annual report, the Panipat refinery’s integrated crude processing and petrochemical production capacity expansion is on track for phased commissioning in 2025-26.
