Brazilian energy titan Petrobras announced on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, it is trialing Cardano blockchain technology in two research projects. These initiatives aim to rigorously track the environmental benefits of renewable fuels, specifically Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and its renewable diesel product, Diesel R.
The collaboration involves the Cardano Foundation and PUC-Rio, with key figures like Rafael Fraga from the Cardano Foundation, Magda Chambriard, Petrobras CEO, and Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, highlighting the significance of this move towards verifiable green claims.
Verifying Green Credentials with the Cardano Blockchain
This strategic adoption seeks to address critical challenges in the energy transition, primarily making emissions claims easier to verify and preventing the problematic issue of double-counting environmental benefits. The systems are designed to foster greater trust and transparency across the entire supply chain. It marks a significant step for Petrobras as it continues to expand its renewable energy portfolio.
Petrobras has developed two distinct applications built on the Cardano blockchain, each tailored to different fuel types but sharing the common goal of enhancing traceability. The first project focuses on Sustainable Aviation Fuel, employing a “book-and-claim” system.
This innovative method allows the environmental benefits of cleaner fuel to be assigned separately from the physical fuel itself, creating a more flexible and verifiable market for green attributes.
The second application monitors Petrobras’s renewable diesel, Diesel R, by creating digital checkpoints across its entire lifecycle. These checkpoints cover production, transportation, and eventual use, generating a continuous, immutable record. Such detailed tracking is vital for accurate reporting, particularly for challenging Scope 3 emissions, which encompass indirect greenhouse gas emissions throughout a company’s value chain.
Rafael Fraga, LATAM business development lead at Cardano Foundation, underscored the broader implications. “The energy transition will depend as much on trust as it does on new fuels,” Fraga stated.
“Public blockchain gives us the opportunity to make that trust part of the system by design, providing industries with a shared, verifiable foundation for the next generation of energy markets.” This foundational trust is increasingly important for blockchain security in complex supply chains.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Tokenization
For the SAF project, environmental attributes are tokenized into digital assets known as CS-SAF tokens on the Cardano blockchain. These tokens carry rich metadata aligned with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). This standardization ensures global compatibility and transparency, allowing the tokens to be minted, transferred, consulted, and retired as needed.
Petrobras began delivering Brazilian-produced SAF on December 5, 2025, with an initial volume of 3,000 cubic meters. This quantity was equivalent to roughly one day of demand at Rio de Janeiro airports. The renewable portion of Petrobras’s SAF has the potential to reduce net carbon-dioxide emissions by up to 87%, depending on the approved feedstock, demonstrating significant environmental upside.
The company produces SAF through co-processing at its Duque de Caxias Refinery (Reduc) in Rio de Janeiro, which holds authorization from the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) to incorporate up to 1.2% renewable feedstock in its SAF production.
Magda Chambriard, Petrobras CEO, affirmed, “The SAF, produced by co-processing at our refining system, is a solution that contributes to the fulfillment of the decarbonization goals of the aviation sector.”
Diesel R and Scope 3 Emissions Tracking
The Diesel R project, on the other hand, focuses on providing a granular, verifiable record of the fuel’s journey. By establishing digital checkpoints at each stage, Petrobras can ensure that claims regarding its renewable diesel are backed by irrefutable on-chain data.
This level of transparency is particularly beneficial for companies striving to accurately report their Scope 3 emissions, a notoriously difficult area to quantify and verify.
Individual airline passengers can also engage with the SAF program. By entering their departure and destination airports, they can receive a digital record linked to an allocation of sustainable aviation fuel. A dedicated app allows them to claim tokens and receive an official offset certificate, bringing a new level of personal involvement to environmental initiatives.
A Growing Alliance in Brazil
The latest blockchain trials represent a deepening relationship between the Cardano Foundation and Petrobras, which has roots stretching back several years. The two organizations first began working together through a blockchain education program announced on December 20, 2023. This initiative made foundational blockchain knowledge accessible to more than 40,000 Petrobras employees, laying the groundwork for advanced applications.
Additionally, the Cardano Foundation and PUC-Rio’s Ledger Labs had previously announced a collaboration on blockchain applications for renewable-energy fuels on April 15, 2025. This long-term engagement highlights a strategic commitment to exploring how decentralized technologies can support Brazil’s energy sector. The continued evolution of these systems is crucial for wider blockchain adoption across various industries.
Frederik Gregaard emphasized Brazil’s receptiveness to the Cardano ecosystem. “Brazil has been one of the most consistent adopters of Cardano, from SERPRO in government to SENAI in industry,” Gregaard commented. “It’s great to see Petrobras, one of the largest firms in the region, continue to see value in on-chain provenance and traceability.”
This growing interest signifies a broader trend towards enterprise blockchain adoption in Latin America.
Industry Impact and Future Outlook
Petrobras’s move to utilize Cardano for fuel tracking holds significant implications for the broader energy sector and the transition to cleaner fuels. As the first company to produce SAF entirely within Brazil, Petrobras is setting a precedent. Its SAF boasts ISCC-CORSIA sustainability certification and can be used without requiring modifications to existing aircraft or fueling infrastructure, easing adoption challenges.
Brazilian airlines will face upcoming mandates to use SAF. Starting in 2027, this will apply to international flights under ICAO’s CORSIA, with domestic flights following suit based on the Future Fuel Law. These regulatory drivers underscore the urgency and importance of verifiable tracking systems like those being developed with Cardano. Transparency in reporting and verifiable claims will become paramount.
While the current projects are still in the research-and-development stage, their successful implementation could provide a robust framework for environmental attribute tracking. This could extend beyond fuel, potentially influencing how other industries certify and trade their sustainability efforts. Such practical applications help establish real-world utility for the Cardano ecosystem.
Scaling Production and Challenges
Despite these advancements, the broader scale-up of renewable fuel production faces its own set of challenges. Petrobras has indicated delays in the planned startup of three other SAF plants by approximately one year. The first of these is now expected to commence operations in 2030, with the remaining two slated for 2031 or later.
These future facilities, located at the RPBC refinery in Cubatao, the Boaventura complex in Rio de Janeiro, and the REPLAN refinery in Paulinia, are planned to collectively achieve a substantial production capacity of 45,000 barrels per day.
The current blockchain trials are therefore crucial in developing the verification infrastructure needed to support such large-scale production when it eventually comes online, ensuring that environmental claims remain credible and verifiable.