Sustainable aviation fuel went from a talking point to a logistics problem faster than most airports expected. Global SAF production nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025, climbing to roughly 1.9 million tonnes. New blending facilities are coming online at major hubs - Delta just opened one at Minneapolis/St. Paul in July 2026, capable of managing up to 30 million gallons of neat SAF per year. And in the United States, the SAF Grand Challenge is targeting three billion gallons of annual production by 2030.
All of that fuel has to be stored, moved, and blended in infrastructure that did not exist five years ago. Every new tank, pipe run, pump skid, and containment area in that chain is a potential leak point. And here is the part that does not get enough attention: the leak detection at most of these sites was designed for conventional Jet A, and whether it is adequate for the fuels actually flowing today is a question worth asking.
What SAF Actually Is — and Why It Matters for Detection
SAF is not a single product. Eleven ASTM-approved production pathways fall under the D7566 specification, each using different feedstocks and conversion chemistry. The two dominant routes right now are HEFA, which processes fats and oils into synthetic paraffinic kerosene, and Alcohol-to-Jet, which converts ethanol or other alcohols into jet-range hydrocarbons. Fischer-Tropsch and Power-to-Liquid round out the field. Each pathway produces a fuel with a slightly different molecular profile, but all yield hydrocarbons that must be blended with conventional Jet A before reaching an aircraft—currently at ratios up to fifty percent.
The blended product is still fundamentally a hydrocarbon liquid. It moves through pipelines, sits in storage tanks, and pools in sumps just like conventional jet fuel. The leak detection challenge is not entirely new. But the infrastructure handling it often is — freshly constructed blending stations, dedicated storage tanks, additional transfer piping — and that new infrastructure deserves detection systems engineered for the job, not assumptions carried over from a fuel system that looked different ten years ago.
Where SAF Leaks Actually Happen
Follow the fuel from the refinery gate to the wing of the aircraft and count the handoffs. SAF arrives at a blending terminal by rail, truck, or pipeline. It goes into dedicated storage, gets metered and blended with Jet A, then moves through pipeline or truck to the airport fuel farm, into hydrant systems, and out to fueling aprons. Each transfer point — every pump, valve, fitting, manifold, and tank connection along that path — is a place where fuel can escape containment.
Fittings that passed hydrostatic testing during commissioning can develop slow weeps under thermal cycling and vibration once operations begin. A blending facility handling tens of millions of gallons per year cannot afford to learn about these issues from a stain on the concrete or a call from a regulator.
The Alcohol-to-Jet Wrinkle
Here is where things get more interesting for operators who think their existing sensors have it covered. The Alcohol-to-Jet pathway — projected to supply roughly a quarter of U.S. SAF output by 2030 — uses ethanol as its primary feedstock. That means facilities handling AtJ-pathway SAF are working with ethanol in bulk quantities before conversion, alongside finished hydrocarbon product after conversion.
Ethanol is fully miscible with water. It does not float, does not form a visible sheen, and does not trigger conventional hydrocarbon sensors that rely on detecting a floating fuel layer. If ethanol leaks into a sump with rainwater or condensation, it dissolves and disappears. A sensor designed to catch gasoline or diesel floating on water will not see it.
That is a real gap. Facilities that handle both ethanol feedstock and finished SAF product need detection that covers both ends of the chemistry — polar solvents like ethanol and conventional hydrocarbons like kerosene — without generating false alarms from water and condensation that are always present in outdoor fuel environments.
What Leak Detection for SAF Facilities Should Look Like
A detection system protecting SAF infrastructure needs to respond rapidly to hydrocarbon liquids, including the synthetic kerosenes that SAF pathways produce. It needs to detect ethanol and other polar solvents at concentrations that matter for environmental compliance. It needs to ignore water — because sumps and containment areas collect rain, snow, and condensation constantly. And it needs to distinguish a genuine leak from the residual film, grease, and background contamination that accumulate in any operating fuel facility.
That combination of requirements is what polymer absorption sensor technology was built for. PAS-based sensors respond to hydrocarbons through direct chemical reaction with the polymer matrix — not by detecting conductivity or a floating layer. That mechanism works across the range of refined fuels and synthetic kerosenes that SAF blending produces. Paired with intelligent thresholding algorithms, the same platform catches ethanol in water at actionable concentrations without crying wolf every time it rains.
The Infrastructure Is Going In Now
SAF blending facilities are not a future consideration. They are under construction and coming online today. Federal Airport Improvement Program grants now fund on-airport SAF infrastructure. Europe's ReFuelEU mandate requires SAF blending at European airports. Airlines are locking in offtake agreements measured in hundreds of millions of gallons. Every one of those facilities needs leak detection, and the question is whether operators spec systems that match the fuels being handled or default to equipment designed for an earlier era.
If your facility is handling SAF or building infrastructure to do so, the right time to add leak detection is before the fuel starts flowing. Naftosense systems have been engineered for exactly this combination of challenges: fast hydrocarbon response, ethanol and polar solvent detection, water immunity, and field durability that keeps working in outdoor environments for a decade.
To discuss the right sensor configuration for your SAF infrastructure, visit www.naftosense.com or call (800) 774-5630.