Brazilian energy company Petrobras is testing the Cardano blockchain in two research projects designed to improve the tracking and provenance of lower-emission fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel and renewable-content diesel.
The projects are being developed with the Cardano Foundation and PUC-Rio’s Ledger Labs and remain at the research stage. The initiative is focused on determining how blockchain-based records could provide verifiable information about the origin, movement, and environmental attributes of fuels.
The research aims to establish on-chain provenance for sustainable aviation fuel and Diesel R, creating traceable records across different stages of fuel production, transportation and use.
The Cardano Foundation and Petrobras have not disclosed the volume of fuel covered by the projects or provided a timetable for broader commercial deployment. No transaction counts, blockchain addresses, record volumes, or live deployment date were disclosed.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Uses Book-and-Claim Model
One of the projects focuses on sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, and uses a book-and-claim model intended to separate physical fuel consumption from the allocation of its environmental benefits.
Under the model, an airline could receive the environmental benefit associated with qualifying SAF even when the physical fuel itself is consumed at another location. The system records the origin and recipient of the environmental claim, allowing participants to trace the claim back to the underlying fuel certificate.
The approach is intended to address the risk of double counting emissions reductions. Digital records are created only after the underlying certificates pass verification procedures.
The Cardano Foundation’s case study describes checks against relevant aviation standards, including the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA. Certificates are then represented as standardized digital tokens containing information about their environmental attributes.
Retirement of the digital certificate is designed to prevent the same environmental benefit from being claimed again.
The project also includes a proposed passenger-facing application. Users would provide departure and destination airports, after which the application could calculate a corresponding SAF allocation and issue a certificate linked to the original fuel certificate.
Diesel R Tracking Creates Digital Fuel History
The second research project focuses on Diesel R, which Petrobras describes as diesel containing renewable materials such as vegetable oils or animal fats.
The proposed system would create digital checkpoints throughout the fuel’s lifecycle. Information would be recorded at stages including production, transportation, and use, allowing separate records to be connected into a broader history of the fuel.
The Diesel R model is designed to connect records across the fuel supply chain, potentially giving companies a more detailed basis for tracking emissions and environmental information associated with fuel use.
The Cardano Foundation has highlighted the potential relevance of the system to Scope 3 emissions, which cover indirect emissions occurring throughout a company’s value chain. Such information can be difficult to collect because relevant data may be held by suppliers, transportation providers or other businesses.
Connecting those records through a shared digital infrastructure could provide a mechanism for organizations to consolidate information from different stages of the supply chain.
However, the Diesel R model remains a proposed research concept rather than a disclosed commercial deployment.
Brazil Emerges as Cardano Research Market
The Cardano Foundation has pointed to Brazil as an important market for blockchain experimentation, citing adoption involving government and industrial organizations.
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
The Petrobras projects add an energy-sector use case to that activity, while also testing whether blockchain infrastructure can support environmental claims that require verification across multiple parties.
The collaboration reflects a broader effort to use distributed ledgers for traceability rather than simply for financial transactions. In the fuel sector, the technology could potentially provide a shared record linking physical products with certificates, environmental attributes and supply-chain events.
Research Stage Leaves Deployment Uncertain
Despite the potential applications, the projects remain experimental. Petrobras and the Cardano Foundation have not announced fuel volumes, production targets, or dates for wider implementation.
The current initiative is therefore a research effort to test blockchain-based fuel provenance and environmental-attribute tracking, rather than a confirmed commercial rollout by Petrobras.
The SAF case study provides a more developed framework, including certificate verification, tokenization and retirement mechanisms. The Diesel R concept extends the same broader traceability approach to successive supply-chain events.
Further development would depend on technical results, regulatory requirements, industry participation, and the ability to obtain reliable data from the organizations involved in fuel production and distribution.
