Greenlyte to manufacture eSAF at Germany’s Düsseldorf Airport

Image: Greenlyte

Essen, Germany-based startup Greenlyte announced Sept. 4 that the go-ahead has been given for it to build a real-world laboratory for next-generation sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at Düsseldorf Airport, North Rhine-Westphalia’s largest airport.

The facility will enable “air-to-tank” production using the power-to-liquid (PTL) kerosene process.

In a signed memorandum of understanding, Lufthansa Group airline Eurowings has stated its intent to be the exclusive purchaser of the entire production volume of SAF for an initial period of three years.

In addition to this, Eurowings will be the strategic partner of the innovative project.

The airline operates its largest European basis at Düsseldorf Airport.

“Electricity-based fuels play a key technological role in making flying more sustainable in the future,” Greenlyte stated. “The real-world laboratory, which upon completion is slated to be one of the world’s largest facilities for the production of direct air capture (DAC) to SAF, is being built on the airport grounds next to the motorway and the Skytrain line.

Greenlyte extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere, producing green hydrogen in the same process and converting both into synthetic fuel.

The electricity requirement is covered proportionally by a photovoltaic system installed locally at the airport.

The real-world laboratory’s total annual production capacity of PTL SAF is projected to be around 150 metric tons, or around 50,000 gallons.

Mathematically, this is enough for 60 flights between Düsseldorf and Palma with the currently maximum permissible SAF blending ratio of around 50 percent.

The plant in Düsseldorf is primarily supposed to serve as a proof of concept and pave the way for commercial plants with a significantly higher capacity.

To date, PTL SAF is up to 10 times more expensive than fossil kerosene.

Currently, it is only produced in a few laboratories and test facilities.

To make the wide use of electricity-based aviation fuels possible, their availability must increase and prices must fall significantly.

Only then can blending quota requirements be met.

“The future of flying must be both more sustainable and affordable,” said Jens Bischof, Eurowings CEO. “The SAF real-world laboratory at our largest site in Düsseldorf demonstrates in concrete terms how electricity-based SAF can be made technologically feasible. However, commercial viability is just as crucial. In order to get the market ramp-up underway, policymakers should develop measures that promote investment in PTL production facilities and, through this, help close the price gap between PTL SAF and fossil kerosene.”

Lars Redeligx, CEO of Düsseldorf Airport, added, “Eurowings’ declaration of intent to purchase SAF produced at our airport is an important and strong signal. The provision of sustainable fuels is of central importance for the sustainable transformation of our industry. In order for electricity-based SAF to be offered at a lower price in the future, production ramp-up must be strengthened and improvements in the manufacturing process achieved through innovative approaches. That is why we are very pleased to be working with Euref Campus and Eurowings to advance the project of the Essen-based startup and thus move one step closer to the SAF real-world laboratory at our airport.”

Florian Hildebrand, CEO and co-founder of Greenlyte, said, “We are proud to have found two pioneering partners in North Rhine-Westphalia in Eurowings and the airport, who believe in the potential of our technology for climate-neutral flying. With this project, we are taking the next big step—we want to show that eSAF can be produced cost-effectively and scalably, and that this is precisely how our technology will become a catalyst for transforming aviation. The project fits seamlessly into our project portfolio and underlines that defossilization cannot be achieved through innovation alone, but through bold partnerships.”