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Most trucks and jetliners in the U.S. still run on fuel refined from crude oil, but a growing share of that supply now starts as fats, oils and greases. Renewable diesel is made by treating those raw materials with hydrogen, producing a hydrocarbon that behaves like petroleum diesel. Because of that, it can go straight into existing diesel engines and fueling equipment without retrofits. It is not the same fuel as biodiesel.
Sustainable aviation fuel, usually shortened to SAF, applies the same idea to jet fuel. It is made from similar feedstocks, often at plants that also produce renewable diesel, and it is blended with conventional jet fuel for use in existing aircraft. Depending on the feedstock and process, both fuels can cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to about 80% compared with the petroleum fuels they replace.
The two fuels are at very different stages of growth. U.S. renewable diesel production averaged about 190,000 barrels a day in 2025 and is forecast to average roughly 240,000-250,000 barrels a day in 2026, according to the latest EIA outlooks. Sustainable aviation fuel remains far smaller but is scaling quickly: capacity stood at about 2,000 barrels a day at the start of 2024, rose to roughly 30,000 barrels a day by early 2025 as large HEFA projects came online, and EIA projects SAF will account for about 2% of U.S. jet fuel consumption in 2026.
Government policy shapes much of the economics. The federal Renewable Fuel Standard requires refiners and importers to blend renewable fuel into their supply or buy tradable credits, called RINs, from producers who make it. That gives producers two sources of income: the fuel itself and the credits it generates. In 2025, biomass-based diesel output dropped sharply while the industry waited for clarity on a new federal clean fuel tax credit and on future blending targets.
That uncertainty eased in March 2026, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized record requirements for 2026 and 2027. The biomass-based diesel category, which includes renewable diesel and biodiesel, rises to 8.86 billion RINs in 2026 and 8.95 billion in 2027. By the agency’s own analysis, meeting those levels will take production more than 60% above 2025 levels.
That is the backdrop for XCF Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFX), a Houston company that owns the New Rise Renewables plant in Reno, Nevada. The company has reported that the plant shipped 1.3 million gallons of renewable diesel in August, bringing in more than $10 million in revenue. August was the first full month of commercial sales since the facility restarted in July.
XCF said the figure also includes related incentives and renewable attributes, such as RIN credits. Dividing the two headline numbers gives a blended value of roughly $7.70 or more per gallon. The volume works out to about 42,000 gallons a day across the month, below the roughly 50,000 gallons a day the company now cites, consistent with deliveries that began in early August.
XCF wants to lift daily output above 70,000 gallons and eventually reach nameplate capacity of more than 100,000 gallons a day. The site is permitted for up to 38 million gallons a year. So far, the reported sales are renewable diesel only. The company has said it is targeting production of a SAF blending component at Reno in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to operating, market and regulatory conditions.
The restart matters because of the plant’s history. Securities filings from 2025 describe repeated maintenance downtime at Reno after renewable diesel production first began, and the plant later went through upgrades ahead of the July 2026 restart.
One month of sales does not resolve XCF’s larger uncertainties, but it settles the most basic question: the Reno plant is running and customers are paying for its fuel. With federal renewable-fuel policy now set at record levels, the next few monthly reports will show whether XCF can lift output to 70,000 gallons a day and hold that pace.
