Axens launches France’s 1st industrial-scale SAF unit based on advanced ethanol using Jetanol™ technology

Azure Sustainable Fuels Corp.
13 minutes ago
2 min read

Axens announced July 15 the launch of the Ethanol to Refuel Aviation project, the first French production unit for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) based on advanced bioethanol.

With a planned capacity of 50,000 metric tons per year, the facility—whose location in France is currently being selected—is scheduled to start operations in 2030.

Axens said the ERA project further reinforces the company’s industrial commitment to the transition toward low-carbon mobility, alongside the NACRE project (advanced bioethanol production at the Lacq site, which has obtained its construction permit) and the MACARON project (battery materials production in Valenciennes, which has recently submitted its construction permit application).

The growing demand for SAF from the aviation sector requires the expansion of production beyond current SAF pathways based on used cooking oils and animal fats—the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) route.

The ERA project will help meet this need by broadening access to new SAF sources derived from biomass residues, representing an important step toward strengthening the energy sovereignty of French and European air transport.

Currently in the engineering phase, the project will be carried out by a dedicated project company named Safiris and is targeted to begin production in 2030.

It will leverage the Jetanol™ technology developed by Axens and IFPEN, which has been proven in various petrochemical applications and optimized to maximize SAF yields, according to Axens.

The facility’s capacity has been set at 50,000 tons per year of SAF production, using advanced ethanol sourced from European feedstocks.

France set SAF blending targets as early as 2020, and Europe subsequently reinforced and expanded this ambition through the ReFuelEU aviation regulation, which requires the incorporation of more than 1 million tons per year of SAF for flights departing from France by 2035.

Such a target represents a significant opportunity to develop French and European SAF production value chains based on domestic resources and technologies, complementing existing SAF production from used cooking oils and animal fats, as well as future eSAF production.

“With ERA, we are leveraging the full breadth of our technological expertise and project management capabilities to build, in France, an industrial SAF value chain based on French and European resources,” said Axens CEO Quentin Debuisschert. “This is a sovereignty project as much as it is an energy-transition project, bringing together the agricultural and low-carbon chemicals ecosystems. ERA, which will demonstrate the superior performance of our Jetanol™ technology, will serve as a replicable model for France, Europe and the rest of the world.”

The ERA project is fully aligned with the reindustrialization and energy-transition ambitions promoted by France and the European Union:

Creation of a new industrial value chain based on the use of local resources.

Reduced dependence on imports of fossil jet fuel and SAF.

Direct contribution to the decarbonization of the aviation sector, which is estimated to account for around 2 percent to 3 percent of global-warming impacts.