Course 01 of 20 · Biofuels and SAF Desk Academy

Biofuels & SAF Business

Stage A, Market foundations. Level 1 of 10.

The map of the renewable fuels value chain and the roles, counterparties and revenue sources a desk sits between.

120 chapters · 12 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: nothing: this is the entry point

Enrol or enquire See the 120 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

12 modules · 120 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Product and Why Anyone Buys It Ch 1-10
  1. Why a Renewable Fuels Desk Has Customers at All
  2. Renewable Is a Claim About Origin, Not About Chemistry
  3. The Molecule, the Evidence and the Entitlement
  4. Drop-In Fuel and Blend Component Are Different Businesses
  5. Sustainable Aviation Fuel as a Commercial Category
  6. Why the Same Tonne Is Worth Different Amounts in Two Countries
  7. The Words That Name the Roles and the Money
  8. Why Buyers Ask Where the Input Came From
  9. Four Ways This Business Differs From the Fossil Barrel
  10. A Day on a Renewable Fuels Desk
M1 The Products and the Pools They Enter Ch 11-20
  1. Ethanol and the Petrol Pool
  2. FAME Biodiesel and the Buyers It Can Reach
  3. Renewable Diesel and Why Refiners Treat It Differently
  4. Sustainable Aviation Fuel and the Jet Pool
  5. Biomethane and the Gas Grid as a Delivery Route
  6. Bio-Naphtha, Renewable Propane and the Chemical Buyer
  7. Marine Biofuel and the Bunker Buyer's Decision
  8. Co-Product Buyers Nobody Mentions in the Headline
  9. Why One Site's Output Reaches Several Different Markets
  10. Which Products Compete and Which Only Look As If They Do
M2 The Input End and Who Sits There Ch 21-30
  1. Used Cooking Oil Collection as a Business
  2. The Renderer and the Animal Fat Stream
  3. Crushers and the Vegetable Oil Seller
  4. The Grain Buyer Behind an Ethanol Plant
  5. Residues, Straw and the Farm Aggregator
  6. Municipal Waste, Landfill Gas and the Site Owner
  7. Tall Oil, Palm Residues and the Industrial By-Product Seller
  8. The Feedstock Aggregator and Why Fragmentation Pays Them
  9. Where the Inputs Are and Where the Plants Are Not
  10. The Broker in a Market With No Screen
M3 The Conversion Asset as a Counterparty Ch 31-40
  1. The Merchant Plant and Its Need for an Offtake
  2. The Integrated Oil Company Inside the Chain
  3. Co-Processing at an Existing Refinery
  4. The Tolling Plant and Who Carries the Price Risk
  5. Who Lends to a Plant and What the Lender Wants
  6. Nameplate, Achieved Output and the Offtake Promise
  7. Why a Site's Location Fixes Its Counterparty List
  8. The Announcement Cycle and Capacity That Never Arrives
  9. Plant Flexibility and Why Buyers Care Who Owns It
  10. Shutdowns, Turnarounds and the Supply Gap They Leave
M4 Blending, Terminals and the Route to the User Ch 41-50
  1. The Blender's Seat and What It Controls
  2. Splash Blending and In-Line Blending as Commercial Choices
  3. The Terminal Operator as Gatekeeper
  4. Why Renewable Fuels Move in Small Parcels
  5. Segregation, Dedicated Tankage and the Cost of Keeping Evidence Intact
  6. Rail, Barge and Road: Mode as a Counterparty Decision
  7. The Airport Fuel Farm and the Into-Plane Step
  8. Pipelines and the Question of What a System Will Accept
  9. Where Title Changes Hands Along the Chain
  10. The Last Mile: Retail Sites, Fleet Depots and Bunker Barges
M5 Who Must Buy, and Under Which Scheme Ch 51-60
  1. The Obligated Party as the Market's Anchor Customer
  2. Obligated Parties Under the United States Renewable Fuel Standard
  3. Regulated Parties Under California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard
  4. Fuel Suppliers Under the European Union's Renewable Energy Directive
  5. Aviation Fuel Suppliers Under ReFuelEU Aviation
  6. Airlines Under CORSIA and Under Their Own Targets
  7. Shipowners, Charterers and the Maritime Fuel Duty
  8. The Voluntary Corporate Buyer and What It Is Actually Buying
  9. Brazil's RenovaBio and the Distributor's Duty
  10. Why the Buyer List Changes When a Scheme Changes
M6 The Evidence Cast Ch 61-70
  1. Why Inspection Alone Cannot Establish Sustainability
  2. The Voluntary Scheme and Where Its Authority Comes From
  3. ISCC, RSB and REDcert as Named Scheme Owners
  4. The Certification Body and the Auditor Who Visits the Site
  5. The Verifier Behind a Compliance Submission
  6. The National Administrator and the Government Register
  7. Databases and Registries as Market Infrastructure
  8. Why Being Certified Is Not the Same as Being Accepted
  9. The Cost of Evidence and Who Ends Up Paying It
  10. What Happens Commercially When Evidence Fails
M7 The Entitlement Cast Ch 71-80
  1. An Entitlement Is a Second Product From the Same Tonne
  2. Renewable Identification Numbers in the United States
  3. Credits and Deficits Under Intensity-Based Programmes
  4. Proofs of Sustainability and National Certificates in Europe
  5. Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates in the United Kingdom
  6. Who Trades Entitlements and Why They Are Not Fuel Traders
  7. Why the Entitlement Market and the Fuel Market Move Apart
  8. Which Entitlements Can Leave the Fuel and Which Cannot
  9. The Obligation Year as the Calendar Everyone Works To
  10. What a Desk Can and Cannot Promise About Entitlement Value
M8 Where the Revenue Actually Comes From Ch 81-90
  1. Four Money Streams From One Tonne
  2. The Physical Fuel Payment and Who Makes It
  3. The Compliance Payment and When It Exceeds the Fuel
  4. The Voluntary Premium and the Claim It Buys
  5. Co-Product and By-Product Receipts
  6. The Tolling Fee as an Alternative to Margin
  7. Where the Integrated Producer Captures Value
  8. Where the Pure Trader Captures Value
  9. Where the Obligated Blender Captures Value
  10. Why the Streams Do Not Arrive at the Same Time
M9 The Seats Around the Desk Ch 91-100
  1. Origination and the Relationship That Precedes the Trade
  2. The Trading Seat and What It Is Actually Long
  3. Operations and the Movement That Must Match the Paper
  4. The Sustainability Function as a Revenue Protector
  5. Compliance Reporting as an Operational Deadline
  6. Credit Control in a Market of Small Suppliers
  7. The Technical Seat and the Specification Question
  8. Legal, Contracting and the Clause That Saves the Claim
  9. Brokers, Exchanges and Price Reporting Agencies
  10. Surveyors, Laboratories and the Independent Third Party
M10 Why Prices Move and What a Desk Watches Ch 101-110
  1. Reading a Renewable Fuel Price Move Honestly
  2. Policy Announcements as the Dominant Price Event
  3. The Food Versus Fuel Argument and Its Assumptions
  4. The Argument Over Claims Detached From the Molecule
  5. Why Waste-Based Supply Claims Are Contested
  6. Feedstock Competition and the Bid a Fuels Desk Must Beat
  7. Imports, Trade Defence and the Flow That Reverses
  8. Plant Economics and the Shut-In Decision as a Supply Signal
  9. Entitlement Prices and the Approach of a Deadline
  10. What a Headline About Renewable Fuels Is Actually Worth
M11 Putting the Chain Together Ch 111-120
  1. The Whole Renewable Fuels Chain in One Picture
  2. Following One Tonne, Part One: Kitchen to Plant Gate
  3. Following One Tonne, Part Two: Plant Gate to Wing
  4. A SAF Supply to an Airline, Mapped End to End
  5. Where the Four Records Stop Agreeing
  6. A Lost Certificate Walked Through the Whole Chain
  7. The Questions a Renewable Fuels Joiner Must Answer
  8. What a Map of This Business Cannot Do for You
  9. Why This Subject's Settings Move, and How to Work With That
  10. The Route Through the Remaining Nineteen Courses

The brochure gives each of these 120 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 1 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Biofuels and SAF Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway