Axens to provide Vegan® HEFA technology to Dragonfly for African, Caribbean SAF production facilities

Axens announced June 10 its collaboration with Dragonfly for the licensing of Axens’ leading Vegan® hydroprocessed esters and fatty acid (HEFA) technology for the development of several sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facilities in Africa and the Caribbean.

As part of the collaboration, Dragonfly will implement Axens’ well-established proprietary Vegan® HEFA technology in sites that will utilize modular process units engineered and supplied by Dragonfly to process renewable feedstocks, including used cooking oils, waste animal fats and other vegetable oils.

Axens will also provide integrated catalyst and adsorbent solutions, proprietary equipment and operational support and training services to ensure optimized plant performance and operational reliability.

Axens is a global provider of process technologies, equipment, catalysts and services for the conversion of oil and biomass into cleaner fuels, renewable fuels and biobased chemicals, natural-gas treatment and carbon-capture solutions.

The company is a leading licensor of industrial units worldwide and provides a full suite of solutions from feasibility studies through unit start-up and lifecycle support.

Dragonfly accelerates the deployment of its proven technologies to bring its SAF refineries to market faster than traditional project development, and with a significantly lower financial and carbon footprint, according to the company.

Creating a biofuels stream from local waste and for local use enables the company to address underserved markets at what it said is “truly sustainable city scale.”

“We are honored to provide our Vegan® technology to Dragonfly, supporting them in their innovative and integrated project-execution approach,” said Axens CEO Quentin Debuisschert. “Our highly proven proprietary process adopted by a wide range of operators all over the world and taking advantage of our latest catalysts developments delivering full-SAF yield is a perfect match for Dragonfly’s projects and boosts their profitability. We are pleased to be an integral part in the reduction of the aviation sector’s CO2 emissions and its compliance with the international regulations.”

Dragonfly CEO Karl W. Feilder added, “We are disrupting the traditional oil-and gas-refining model and therefore it’s important for us to partner with companies that understand our innovative approach. To guarantee the construction and optimal performance of our refineries, we combine the world’s best operational SAF technology with guaranteed feedstock supply, and digital supply-chain authentication. We fabricate our refineries in-house, own the tech that pretreats our feedstocks, and we license our hydroprocessing from Axens. This enables us to deliver world-class solutions at a scale that is 10 times smaller, leveraging shorter upstream and downstream supply chains.”