Petrobras and the Cardano Foundation unveiled two research-stage blockchain applications for low-carbon fuels. One turns the environmental benefit of sustainable aviation fuel into retirable
Petrobras is testing Cardano as a record-keeping layer for two of its lower-carbon fuels. The Cardano Foundation announced this week two research and development applications built with Brazil’s state-controlled oil company and PUC-Rio’s Ledger Labs: one converts the environmental attributes of Petrobras’ sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) into on-chain tokens, and the other logs the delivery history of its renewable-content Diesel R. Both remain at the R&D stage, and Petrobras has disclosed neither fuel volumes nor a commercial timetable. The weight of the announcement comes from the company running the test, which booked R$497.5 billion in sales revenue in 2025 and plans $109 billion of investment under its 2026-2030 business plan.
Today, we announce two new initiatives with @Petrobras.
As part of an ongoing R&D collaboration with Petrobras and PUC-Rio, the teams have delivered two blockchain applications focused on sustainable aviation fuel and Diesel R, Petrobras' brand of renewable fuel.
The work adds…
— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) September 30, 2026
Petrobras produces SAF at its Duque de Caxias Refinery from residual feedstocks and says the renewable portion cuts CO2 emissions by more than 80% compared with conventional jet fuel. It was the first Brazilian company to obtain CORSIA certification for SAF made in Brazil, and it sold 6,100 cubic meters of the fuel in Q2 2026, co-processed at the refinery with 1% renewable content. At that blend, the 80% reduction applies to only a sliver of each liter, so the emissions benefit behind any single CS-SAF token will be small until Petrobras raises the renewable share.
The new token, CS-SAF, represents the environmental attribute of a certified batch, while the fuel itself stays off-chain. A certificate is checked against CORSIA, the aviation carbon scheme run by ICAO, and its attributes are minted as tokens that can move to airlines or corporate buyers. Individual travelers can also receive an allocation by entering departure and arrival airports for a specific trip. Once the benefit is claimed, the token is retired on-chain for good.
Airlines often cannot get SAF delivered to the airports where their planes refuel. Under Book-and-Claim, the fuel enters the supply network wherever it is produced and the buyer receives the emissions benefit separately. Every transfer adds another company with its own records, and an auditor has to establish which certificate backs a claim and whether someone used it first. A shared ledger shows every participant where an attribute came from and when it was retired. That retirement record is what lets a buyer prove its claim is unique. A public chain also shows whatever is written to it, so any airline or corporate buyer will want to know which CS-SAF fields are visible before its name appears on a retirement.
Petrobras makes Diesel R by co-processing petroleum with vegetable oils or animal fats, in blends such as R5 and R10, with 5% and 10% renewable content. The company says it emits less than ester biodiesel made from the same feedstock and works in existing engines and storage. The Cardano application places digital checkpoints along the fuel’s route from refinery to end user, giving companies that report Scope 3 emissions supplier data they can actually check. Petrobras has not moved this supply chain onto Cardano. It remains a proposed model.
Brazil has become one of the Foundation’s most active enterprise markets, with deals involving government IT provider SERPRO, SENAI São Paulo and Blockforce, whose traceability platform has anchored more than 500,000 supply-chain records on Cardano. The Petrobras relationship followed a steady path.
DEC 2023
Cardano Academy courses added to Petrobras University, open to 40,000+ employees.
APR 2025
PUC-Rio and Ledger Labs research names renewable fuel supply chains as an early focus.
2026
Training attendance recorded on Cardano via NFC cards, with up to 400% more verifiable data.
NOW
CS-SAF tokens and Diesel R lifecycle tracking enter industrial R&D.
Shell, Accenture and American Express Global Business Travel launched Avelia in 2022 as a blockchain-based SAF Book-and-Claim platform starting with about 1 million gallons. By March 31, 2025, more than 57 corporations and airlines had transacted through it and over 33 million gallons had entered the fuel network. That is the benchmark Petrobras will be measured against. Avelia has since opened to SAF from other suppliers, with Accenture hosting the platform data, while Petrobras is building directly on Cardano, a public network run by independent stake pools. Other majors have used ledgers for jobs ranging from crude trade paperwork to flared-gas Bitcoin mining.
Petrobras
SAF attribute tokens and diesel lifecycle records on Cardano
R&D
Shell / Avelia
SAF Book-and-Claim ownership tracking
Commercial
BP, Equinor, Shell / VAKT
Shared crude trade records and digital confirmations since 2018
Commercial
Saudi Aramco
Vendor smart contracts at oil fields and refineries
Operational
Equinor / Context Labs
Blockchain-backed decarbonization data
Investment
ExxonMobil / Crusoe
Flared gas powering Bitcoin miners in North Dakota
Pilot
The Petrobras news has not moved ADA much. The token trades near $0.2442 on Binance, down about 1% on the day, after touching the upper boundary of a rising channel near $0.26 around September 25. Since early July, every major dip has bottomed at a higher level than the one before, while rallies have stalled at the channel’s top line. The past week shows long upper wicks on the daily candles, meaning buyers pushed the price up during the session but sellers took it back before the close.
ADA/USDT daily chart. Source: Alexander Stefanov / TradingView
The 20-day moving average sits at $0.2315 and is still rising, so the short-term trend remains upward as long as ADA holds above it. RSI reads 58 and has dropped below its own average of 63, which shows buying pressure has cooled since the overheated reading above 70 on September 22, though it is far from the zone that usually signals selling exhaustion. A daily close below $0.2315 would open the way toward the mid-September consolidation around $0.22.
Resistance $0.2600channel top, September high $0.2545today’s session high Support $0.231520-day moving average $0.2200mid-September consolidation $0.2150channel floorPetrobras’ next meaningful disclosure would be volume. Until it says how much fuel flows through these systems, the applications carry no weight in its earnings or emissions reports. Airlines will also want to know whether CS-SAF retirements are recognized by the registries they already use for CORSIA compliance.
On September 24 the Foundation announced full Fireblocks support for Cardano Native Tokens, expected by March 2027, which would let banks and payment firms on a platform that says it has secured $16 trillion in digital-asset transactions hold Cardano assets through their existing setup. Tokenized fuel attributes would need that kind of custody before a large airline could hold them.
Timing may work in Petrobras’ favor. CORSIA’s first compliance phase covers 2024 through 2026, and airlines will reconcile their emissions claims for that period over the coming years. That reconciliation will show whether a public, retirable token satisfies aviation auditors, and Petrobras has not yet said whether CS-SAF would sit alongside existing certification registries or take over part of their role.
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