Petrobras has developed two research-stage applications with the Cardano Foundation and PUC-Rio to track environmental claims for sustainable aviation fuel and lifecycle data for its renewable-content Diesel R.
Summary
- The Cardano Foundation says the aviation project separates fuel use from the allocation of environmental benefits.
- Its SAF case study describes digital tokens that are retired after a claim to prevent reuse.
- The Foundation says the Diesel R project links production, transport, and use records to support emissions reporting.
The Cardano Foundation announced the projects on Sep. 30, describing applications developed through its ongoing research collaboration with Brazil’s state-controlled energy company and PUC-Rio’s Ledger Labs. Both initiatives remain research projects, with no commercial launch date disclosed.
Cardano links aviation claims to fuel certificates
Under the aviation project’s Book-and-Claim model, an airline can receive the environmental benefit associated with sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, even when another operator uses the physical fuel, according to the announcement.
For each allocation, the Foundation says Cardano records the benefit’s origin and recipient, allowing participants to trace a claim back to the fuel certificate behind it. The proposed system addresses the risk of assigning the same environmental benefit to more than one buyer.
In its accompanying SAF case study, the organization describes a certificate-checking process that takes place before digital records enter the system. Certificates are checked against the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, known as CORSIA, and other recognized standards, according to that document.
Once verified, the case study says, the certificates become standardized tokens carrying information about their environmental attributes. Participants can issue, transfer, and inspect the tokens before retiring them when the associated benefit is claimed. The Foundation describes retirement as the step that prevents a token from being used again.
For passengers, the announcement describes an application that accepts departure and destination airports and calculates a corresponding SAF allocation. A traveler then receives a certificate showing the route, distance, and allocation, with a connection to the original fuel certificate.
The Foundation identifies CS-SAF as the digital token representing the aviation fuel’s environmental benefit, while its case study describes assigning tokens to airlines or individual journeys using emissions calculations.
Diesel R records follow production, transport and use
Across the second project, the Foundation says digital checkpoints would collect Diesel R information at successive stages of production, transportation and use. Connecting the records would create a fuel history that companies could consult when preparing emissions accounts.
Petrobras describes Diesel R as diesel containing a renewable portion produced by processing petroleum-based diesel alongside vegetable oils or animal fats. In the company’s explanation, the renewable material passes through refinery treatment involving hydrogen and catalysts.
According to Petrobras’ product documentation, the resulting fuel can use existing engines, storage facilities, and distribution infrastructure without adaptations. The company sells Diesel R to fuel distributors that supply service stations in Brazil.
For emissions reporting, the Foundation places particular attention on Scope 3, which covers indirect emissions across a company’s value chain. Its announcement says the necessary information can sit in separate supplier, logistics and external systems, making the diesel project’s connected records relevant to tracing the data used in those reports.
Rafael Fraga, the Foundation’s Latin America business development lead, said:
“The energy transition will depend as much on trust as it does on new fuels.”
In the same statement, Fraga said increasingly complex supply chains make the origin, movement and reliability of environmental data important to the companies using it.
Petrobras research builds on earlier Brazilian partnerships
In April 2025, the Foundation announced a research agreement with PUC-Rio that initially focused on renewable fuel production, consumption and supply chains. The organization said it would support Ledger Labs, with Petrobras participating as an industry partner.
The April announcement also identified blockchain economics, decentralized finance, digital assets and the governance of decentralized autonomous organizations as research subjects. Fraga said at the time that the Foundation had worked with Petrobras since 2023.
As crypto.news previously reported, the Foundation’s March 2025 partnership with SERPRO included bringing Cardano Academy training to the Brazilian government technology provider’s 8,000 employees, more than 2,000 of whom were developers.
That report placed the Petrobras education alliance in December 2023 and described the SERPRO agreement as covering blockchain education and public-sector infrastructure integration.
More recently, a Sep. 1 report on Cardano’s supply chain verification described a separate deployment with Brazilian technology company Blockforce. According to the partners, the platform had anchored proofs for more than 500,000 records, including activity involving fashion group Azzas 2154.
In that deployment, the report said, commercial records stay on a restricted network while corresponding proofs appear on Cardano. Auditors can compare a supplied document with its public proof to check whether it has changed since the proof was recorded.
The partners also reported a 92% reduction in public anchoring costs per record through batching and said signed contracts covered 6.5 million certified records through 2030.
U.S. airlines have separate fuel-reporting procedures
For American aviation companies, the Federal Aviation Administration’s published CORSIA monitoring, reporting and verification guidance provides relevant context for documenting fuel-related emissions reductions.
Under that voluntary program, the FAA says participating U.S. operators conducting international flights submit verified annual emissions reports. Operators wishing to report reductions from CORSIA-eligible fuels, including SAF, should use the agency’s Eligible Fuels Annex.
The FAA guidance says participating operators should include that annex in third-party verification when reporting fuel-related reductions. Its reporting framework includes fuel production year, producer, batch numbers, quantities and associated emissions reductions.
For an operator proposing a different reporting method, the FAA document says the company should contact the agency at least two months before the submission deadline to coordinate an acceptable alternative.
The agency recommends that participants retain their submissions and supporting data for at least 10 years.
