ARC Bio has demonstrated a pathway to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from Canadian forest residue, according to a report in The Globe and Mail, adding a forestry-based option to the narrow set of feedstocks the aviation industry currently certifies for jet-fuel blending.

The demonstration positions ARC Bio among a small group of developers pursuing woody-biomass-to-jet routes in North America. Most certified SAF today derives from used cooking oil, animal tallow, or specific agricultural residues; pathways using forest thinnings, sawmill residuals, and pulpwood offcuts have lagged because of cost, scale, and the technical difficulty of converting lignocellulosic material into drop-in kerosene.

What does the demonstration cover?

The company has not disclosed the scale of the demonstration or the volume of fuel produced. ARC Bio's reported pathway treats forest residue — the branches, tops, and stumps left after timber harvest — as feedstock for a conversion process that yields hydrocarbon fuel intended to meet jet specifications. Demonstration milestones in SAF development typically precede ASTM International review under the organisation's SAF specification framework (currently D7566), which governs which feedstocks and processes regulators approve for blending into Jet A/A-1 at up to 50 percent.

Why Canadian forest residue matters for SAF supply

Canada holds one of the largest inventories of working forest in the world, and provincial jurisdictions produce substantial volumes of harvest residue that currently has low-value uses — pulp chips, bioenergy feedstock, or material left to decay on the cutblock. Converting that material into jet fuel addresses two pressures at once: reducing aviation lifecycle emissions and creating demand for biomass that the forestry sector must otherwise dispose of or burn. Major Canadian carriers have already shown willingness to contract domestic SAF supply at premium prices above conventional Jet A, but volumes delivered to date remain small.

How does this compare to other approved pathways?

Forestry-based SAF routes would compete with alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) pathways already approved under ASTM D7566, alongside hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), which dominate current production. Each pathway faces the same downstream problem: production cost remains well above conventional jet fuel, and certified supply volumes are measured in tens of millions of litres annually rather than the billions the industry would need to meet member-state obligations under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Demonstration milestones move projects along the path from bench-scale testing to commercial offtake negotiations, but they do not by themselves change delivered-fuel economics.

What regulators, airlines, and investors will watch next

The next observable milestones for ARC Bio will be process validation data, ASTM pathway submission status, and any offtake or investment announcements tied to the demonstration. Canadian SAF producers have so far lagged U.S. counterparts in commercial production, in part because the federal Clean Fuel Standard credit price has remained below California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard benchmark. A forestry-based route that can certify under D7566 and qualify for Clean Fuel Standard credits would alter that calculation for producers located near British Columbia or Quebec biomass sources.

ARC Bio's reported demonstration adds another data point to a feedstock diversification effort the aviation industry describes as essential to meeting its 2050 net-zero commitment. Whether forest-residue SAF reaches commercial scale will depend on the next two years of process yield data, regulatory progress under ASTM, and the willingness of provincial governments to extend biomass-supply contracts long enough to make a Canadian-built plant financeable.