Aviation Fuels

Explore the fuel price and emissions intensity of aviation fuel.

Emissions estimates use the Argonne National Laboratory's Research & Development Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (R&D GREET) model (Wang et al., 2023). The underlying source for a value in the table can be seen by placing your mouse cursor over that value.

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Notes: 

• These results are highly context dependent and may not represent the optimal values for each fuel pathway. We recommend caution—and review of other sources—before making comparisons between the cases reported in the table above.
• The price shown for a single fuel pathway may differ by fuel type or application because of different tax and distribution costs.

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Key Assumptions

The data and estimates presented here are based on the following key assumptions:

• Conventional Jet Fuel Price Estimates: The conventional jet fuel price is estimated from the transportation jet fuel price from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) Annual Energy Outlook (EIA, 2025). Prices are converted to dollars per gasoline gallon equivalent using the Lower Heating Values from the R&D GREET 2023 model (Wang et al., 2023), assuming synthetic aviation fuel pathways have the same lower heating value as conventional jet fuel. The Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) does not provide plant metrics for conventional jet fuel because the price is based on current market values and not on modeled costs with specific plant design assumptions.
• Price Estimate References: The full description of fuels references is available at the end of this page. In addition, refer to references by hovering your mouse cursor over data in the table; specific references are also included in the data files. 
• Current Pathways: Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ), and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) pathways to synthetic aviation fuel are approved by ASTM for blending up to 50% of the final product. The pathways for future fuels are not the same as current pathways. 
• Conventional Jet Fuel Emission Estimates: Emissions estimates for conventional jet fuel are from the R&D GREET model (Wang et al., 2023) and use the petroleum ultra-low-sulfur jet pathways. The well-to-wake estimate assumes a single-aisle passenger aircraft (e.g., Boeing 737).
• Emissions Estimate References: The emissions are based on R&D GREET 2023 (Wang et al., 2023). For Combined Algae Processing (CAP) and Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) pathways, the emissions references are same as fuel price references. For the biodiesel pathway from transesterification and HEFA pathways, the emissions are based on Xu et al. (2022). For all other pathways including ATJ, Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL), and 2,3-butane diol (BDO) and butyric acid biochemical pathways, the emissions are based on R&D GREET 2023 (Wang et al., 2023).
• Biogenic Carbon: The biogenic carbon in a biofuel such as the synthetic aviation fuel pathway is considered carbon neutral in the R&D GREET model because the biogenic carbon is assumed to be sourced from the atmosphere during biomass growth. According to R&D GREET model convention, the biogenic carbon credit is allocated to the well-to-tank phase of the biofuel life cycle, which often results in a negative well-to-tank CO2e emissions value after considering greenhouse gas emissions associated with all upstream activities (e.g., farming, land use change, feedstock transportation, and biomass conversion to biofuel).
• Plant characteristics are based on the process design of references included at the end of this page, specific to each pathway. Refer to references by hovering your mouse cursor over data in the table, which are also included in the data files.

The data downloads include additional details of assumptions and calculations for each metric.

To see additional information, place your mouse cursor over a value in the table. 

Definitions

For detailed definitions, see:

CO2e

NOx

SOx

PM

Conventional jet fuel

Fuel price

Scenarios

Synthetic Aviation Fuel

Well-to-tank emissions

Well-to-wake emissions

References

The following references are specific to this page; for all references in this ATB, see References.