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The Bioeconomy asks: Where Is the Money? Why does SAF cost so much?

June 11, 2026 |

For the better part of a year, two questions have surfaced again and again in conversations across the bioeconomy. The first is simple. Where is the money? Not where was it in 2021. Not where people hoped it would be in 2024. Where is it now?

The second question is equally persistent. How do we solve the SAF cost problem? Sustainable aviation fuel remains one of the largest opportunities in the bioeconomy. It is also one of the most scrutinized. Every week seems to bring another discussion about feedstocks, incentives, pathways, economics, premiums, mandates, and scale.

Yet around the world, projects continue to move forward. Capital continues to be deployed. Facilities continue to reach milestones. Companies continue to make decisions that suggest they see opportunities others may be missing.

Over the past several months, we have been studying more than 3,500 bioeconomy projects tracked by The Digest between 2019 and 2026 through the Bioeconomy Deployment Observatory. Two observations emerged. First, the money did not disappear. It moved. Not every project received funding. Not every pathway attracted capital. But capital continued flowing toward projects that reduced uncertainty, secured demand, transferred credibility, synchronized stakeholders, and assembled investable structures.

Second, there is no single SAF cost problem. There are dozens. Feedstock. Logistics. Integration. Energy. Yield. Coproducts. Carbon value. Financing. The projects making progress are not waiting for a miracle. They are removing cost barriers one at a time.

We’ll be assessing these topics all summer as we lead up to ABLC Next in October in San Francisco. In short, where is the oppoprtunity, how to capture it? This week, we’ve assembled two briefings for ABLC-bound readers, drawn from that work: Where The Money Is 2026 and Solving the SAF Cost Problem.

Neither is intended as a forecast. Both are intended as evidence. Because before anyone can decide where to go next, it helps to know where projects are succeeding today.

Attending ABLC Next in San Francisco or joining via ABLC Virtual.

Access these two presentations after your registration is complete at ablcevents.com

Not able to join ABLC Virtual or attend ABLC in person this fall?

You will enjoy this resource, The Landscape: a map of more than 3,500 bioeconomy projects tracked by The Digest between 2019 and 2026, revealing who is building what, where, why, and how.

The Bioeconomy Landscape, Executive Briefing
The Bioeconomy Landscape, Full Report
The Bioeconomy Landscape, Technical Appendix

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