Sustainable aviation fuel prescreening tools and procedures

•A two tiered prescreening process for novel Sustainable Aviation Fuels is proposed.•Tier α tests (1–5 mLs) a fuel’s composition and predicts key properties.•Tier β measures (15–500 mL) key properties.•Two candidate fuels are evaluated with the proposed Tier α and β methods.•Methods reported highlight results of the NJFCP and JETSCREEN programs. This paper outlines the benefits and procedures for prescreening Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) candidates before entering the official ASTM D4054 evaluation process. Specific properties are identified, that if not met, may result in extensive and costly efforts to correct if not recognized until later in the fuel development process. Hence, an approach with specific techniques that use low fuel volumes is suggested that enable (1) early estimates of critical properties and subsequently (2) direct measurement of these properties to guide fuel processing development prior to formally entering the ASTM evaluation process. The process is demonstrated with two exemplary candidate fuels.