EcoCeres has partnered with SF Group and China National Aviation Fuel Group (CNAF) to launch a customized SAF commercial fueling program for air cargo, in collaboration with the Second Research Institute of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CASRI). Under the program, SAF produced by EcoCeres will be blended by CNAF and supplied to outbound freighter flights operated by SF Airlines, enabling up to a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional jet fuel, according to the companies.
Where This Fits Within CNAF's Newly Consolidated Structure
CNAF's role here, blending SAF and supplying it into freighter operations, is consistent with the aviation fuel distribution function this series covered when Sinopec completed its takeover of CNAF in July, bringing the world's largest aviation fuel supplier under Sinopec's control. This program shows that consolidated distribution network being used to route a specific producer's SAF, EcoCeres in this case, into a specific customer's freighter fleet, one concrete instance of the kind of coordinated production-to-distribution pathway that merger was intended to enable.
The Hub This Program Runs Through
Ezhou Huahu International Airport in Hubei, SF Airlines' cargo hub and a gateway identified under China's 14th Five-Year Plan for Port Development, is central to the initiative's fueling and operations. Concentrating a new SAF program at a single, purpose-built cargo hub rather than spreading it across SF Airlines' wider network mirrors a pattern seen elsewhere in this series, such as DHL Express's single-hub SAF agreement in Madrid, where operators have generally chosen to build depth of SAF supply at one strategically important gateway before attempting a broader rollout.
Building on an Earlier Pilot, Not Starting From Zero
This collaboration extends EcoCeres's prior SAF pilot in China, Project Spark, under which SAF produced at EcoCeres's Zhangjiagang facility was blended by CNAF and used to fuel commercial flights at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, validating the value chain from production and transport through to blending and deployment. This new program applies that same validated model to air cargo specifically, rather than representing an entirely new value chain being tested for the first time.
Why the Tracking Platform Matters as Much as the Fuel
The program uses AnchorTrace, a Scope 3 environmental attributes platform jointly developed by CNAF and CASRI, to register, track and retire SAF environmental attributes across their full lifecycle. A dedicated environmental attributes platform, built jointly by the fuel distributor and a civil aviation research institute rather than adopted from an external, existing standard, gives this specific program a China-domestic tracking and verification layer, comparable in function to the certification and book-and-claim infrastructure that underpins SAF claims in other markets, but built as bespoke national infrastructure rather than imported from elsewhere.
What Remains Unconfirmed
Neither the companies' statement nor accompanying coverage discloses SAF volumes, the number of participating flights, pricing, or a specific programme duration. EcoCeres co-chairman James Tam described the project as building a replicable, scalable and verifiable pathway for lower-emissions air cargo in China, framing this specifically as a template intended for wider application rather than a one-off arrangement, though no announced next steps or expansion timeline accompany that framing yet.
Source: Chem Analyst, 12 August 2026.
