NextChem awarded licensing, engineering, equipment and catalyst contract for Sarlux SAF pilot plant

Maire announced Aug. 2 that NextChem, through its subsidiary NextChem Tech, signed a binding term sheet with Sarlux S.r.l., a company belonging to the Saras Group, including the main terms and conditions to act as engineering services and technology provider for the implementation of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) pilot plant in Sarroch’s facility in Sardinia, Italy.

The news of NextChem Tech acting as the technology integrator follows completion of the engineering-design study announced in December.

The SAF pilot plant will have the potential to scale up to an industrial facility.

NextChem Tech will also integrate its own NX CPO™ technology, a cutting-edge solution that makes synthesis gas through a catalytic partial oxidation, into the process.

When NX CPO™ technology is used for synthetic fuel production, it boosts the overall efficiency of the process by recovering and reusing the hydrogen and carbon in the off-gases molecules, thus reducing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, according to Maire.

“The NX CPO™ technology [will be used to] efficiently valorize the off-gases coming from the Fischer Tropsch reactor, boosting the yield of the SAF production,” Maire stated.

NextChem Tech will supply the license and the proprietary equipment, including its own catalyst for this technology.

The agreement also includes a provision for NextChem Tech to provide high value-added engineering services during the project delivery, commissioning and start-up phases.

“This agreement is a clear sign of the soundness of the group’s technological value proposition, spanning from licensing and high-value process-design services to the supply of proprietary catalysts,” said Maire CEO Alessandro Bernini.

“This award is a further demonstration of our top-class and broad portfolio of effective technologies that support our clients in their energy-transition process,” Bernini added.