Robin Ren, Founder and Chairman of Carbonology, spoke as a panelist at SAF Global Summit 2026, hosted at London’s QEII Centre. He joined global industry leaders to discuss technical evolution and commercial roll‑out for next‑generation sustainable aviation fuels.

Running in parallel with the Global Carbon Capture Summit, SAF Global Summit 2026 assembled over 1,200 industry stakeholders and 150+ speakers. Deep‑dive sessions covered policy and regulation, project investment, capacity build‑out, supply‑chain infrastructure and cross‑border trade, exploring how to translate energy‑transition ambitions into bankable, deployable projects.

Conversations shifted from high‑level vision for SAF industry growth toward tangible scaling challenges. Key topics included sustained policy support, real‑world aviation fuel demand, capacity‑expansion risk mitigation, gaps in fuel storage‑and‑delivery infrastructure, financing certainty, and frameworks for balanced supply‑demand markets.

Robin featured on the core panel titled “Next‑Generation SAF: From Lab Innovation to Commercial Success”. The session addressed three critical themes: the landscape of established versus emerging SAF technologies, pathways to scale demonstration‑level breakthroughs into full‑scale operations, and how targeted tech investment can de‑risk projects and unlock multi‑billion‑tonne SAF production potential.

During the panel, Robin shared Carbonology’s engineering progress for DAC‑derived e‑SAF. Conventional SAF is constrained by biomass feedstock limits, land challenges and supply‑chain bottlenecks. By contrast, e‑SAF manufactured via DAC, direct renewable‑power integration and AI‑optimized flexible processes bypasses feed‑supply limitations, marking a vital next‑gen solution for long‑term aviation decarbonization.

He reiterated Carbonology’s execution timeline: its 100‑tonne pilot line in Lingang, Shanghai came online in 2025; the 1,000‑tonne demonstration base in Ningxia is under construction for industrial scale‑up trials in 2026; and the world’s first 10,000‑tonne commercial e‑SAF facility is slated for launch in 2027, putting Carbonology at the forefront of global air‑to‑fuels development.

Moving technologies from lab to commercial reality demands more than technical validation, he stressed. It hinges on driving down engineering costs and securing consistent renewable‑power supplies. Grounded in China while expanding internationally, Carbonology intends to export its fast‑track domestic scale‑up expertise worldwide, bringing Chinese‑origin zero‑carbon aviation solutions to advance global aviation net‑zero goals.