Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras says it has built two blockchain-based applications using Cardano to help track environmental claims tied to renewable fuels. The projects focus on preventing “double counting” of sustainability benefits while improving traceability across fuel production and usage.
According to an announcement from the Cardano Foundation published Wednesday, the first application tokenizes environmental attributes associated with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and ties those attributes to the Book-and-Claim model commonly used in the sector. A second application focuses on renewable diesel, creating digital “checkpoints” intended to support reporting of indirect emissions along a company’s value chain.
Key takeaways
- Petrobras built two Cardano-based traceability systems: one for SAF environmental attributes and another for its Diesel R renewable fuel.
- The SAF tool tokenizes sustainability benefits as digital tokens designed to reduce the risk of duplicate claims.
- Petrobras’ SAF workflow follows a Book-and-Claim structure that decouples environmental benefits from the physical fuel.
- The Diesel R application creates trackable checkpoints spanning production, transport, and end use, potentially supporting Scope 3-style disclosures.
- The Cardano Foundation did not provide fuel volume coverage or a deployment timeline for broader rollout.
Tokenized SAF claims on a Book-and-Claim framework
As described in the Cardano Foundation’s announcement, the SAF application was developed with support from PUC-Rio’s Ledger Labs. It “tokenizes” environmental attributes linked to SAF into digital tokens (identified by the Foundation as CS-SAF) intended to prevent the same sustainability claim from being reused.
The system is built on a Book-and-Claim approach, which is designed to separate the environmental benefit from the actual physical movement of fuel. Under this model, the benefit can be allocated to an airline, company, or passenger even when SAF is consumed elsewhere—an arrangement that helps buyers meet sustainability requirements without relying solely on one-to-one physical sourcing.
The CS-SAF tokens carry metadata aligned with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The Cardano Foundation also says passengers can claim the CS-SAF tokens through an application, receiving a certificate tied to a specific journey and associated environmental claim.
For readers interested in how this is intended to operate in practice, the Cardano Foundation points to a case study on the Petrobras SAF project: https://cardanofoundation.org/case-studies/petrobras-saf.
Digital checkpoints for Diesel R and value-chain emissions
The second Petrobras project described by the Cardano Foundation targets Diesel R, the company’s renewable diesel fuel. Rather than tokenizing attributes for passenger-facing claims, this application focuses on traceability across the fuel lifecycle.
In the Foundation’s description, the system generates digital checkpoints to track production, transportation, and use of Diesel R. The Cardano Foundation said the resulting data could be used to support Scope 3 reporting, which generally covers indirect emissions across a company’s value chain.
While the announcement frames the approach as a reporting aid for emissions connected to upstream and downstream activities, it stops short of detailing how specific reporting standards or verification processes would be handled. The Foundation also did not disclose what volume of fuel would be covered by the applications, nor any timeline for expansion beyond the research and development stage.
How Petrobras’ Cardano work evolved
The Cardano Foundation said the projects are part of a broader collaboration with Petrobras that began in 2023. That earlier phase centered on blockchain education for Petrobras employees. In 2025, the partnership expanded into energy-sector research with PUC-Rio’s Ledger Labs.
Based on the new announcement, the education-to-implementation shift appears to have progressed from training into two concrete traceability use cases: one aimed at the international aviation market’s need for credible, non-duplicative claims, and another aimed at renewable fuel tracking that may feed corporate reporting.
At the same time, the absence of operational details—such as coverage volumes and a rollout timetable—means investors and builders should treat the applications as development milestones rather than evidence of large-scale deployment.
Broader momentum for blockchain in sustainable aviation fuel
Petrobras’ move fits a wider pattern of companies testing blockchain for SAF-related accounting. The Cardano Foundation’s article notes that Shell has used blockchain for similar purposes through Avelia, a Book-and-Claim platform launched in 2022. Shell stated that Avelia helps track environmental attributes and reduce double counting of SAF claims. In a September update referenced by the Foundation, Shell said Avelia contributed to more than 84 million gallons of SAF entering the global fuel network since its launch in 2022 and reported more than 780,000 tonnes of CO₂e abatement through June 2026.
The Foundation also points to additional efforts beyond Brazil. It cites that Australia’s Viva Energy signed an agreement with NoviqTech in January to research digital Book-and-Claim systems for sustainable aviation fuel, including how blockchain could support emissions reporting and track environmental claims.
Compared with these earlier initiatives, Petrobras’ contribution is notable for combining both passenger-claim mechanics for SAF and broader lifecycle checkpoints for renewable diesel. However, the real test for any of these systems will depend on whether the tokenized data flows integrate smoothly with the compliance and verification processes used across fuel markets.
What to watch next
For now, Petrobras’ Cardano applications provide a useful snapshot of how tokenization and blockchain traceability are being adapted for real-world sustainability accounting. The key uncertainties are commercial scale—such as fuel volumes and adoption milestones—and how the underlying data will be accepted in emissions reporting workflows. Readers should watch for future disclosures on deployments, partner integrations, and measurable coverage of SAF and Diesel R as the research moves toward operational use.
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