Phelan Green selects Johnson Matthey technologies for eSAF plant in South Africa

Photo: Johnson Matthey

Johnson Matthey announced June 16 that Phelan Green Hydrogen has licensed technologies from Johnson Matthey Catalyst Technologies for its planned electro sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) facility in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Construction of the facility in Saldanha Bay is expected to begin by the end of 2026 and is part of the wider Phelan Green Hydrogen Project, which expects investment of USD$2.86 billion.

The license win represents the first phase of the project, which, when completed, is expected to be one of the world’s first commercial-scale eSAF production facilities able to produce around 35,000 metric tons of eSAF each year, intended for sale into the EU and U.K. markets.

That will be the equivalent of producing up to 6 percent of the EU and U.K.’s mandated eSAF volumes for 2030.

Once all phases are complete, the facility is expected to supply around 140,000 tons of eSAF in total each year.

Johnson Matthey’s HyCOgen™ technology uses a catalyzed process to convert CO2 and electrolytic (green) hydrogen into carbon monoxide (CO).

This CO is then combined with additional hydrogen to form syngas.

HyCOgen technology integrates with FT CANS™ technology, jointly developed and co-owned by JM and BP, which converts syngas into synthetic crude oil, supporting overall process efficiency.

This synthetic crude oil will then be upgraded to produce synthetic paraffinic kerosene.

“Phelan Green’s plans for an eSAF facility in the Western Cape are a landmark project,” said JM CT CEO Alberto Giovanzana. “It will be one of the world’s first commercial-scale eSAF facilities and a clear signal that SAF can scale today. It also marks Johnson Matthey’s first deployment of HyCOgen and FT CANS in Africa.”

Blair Phelan, the managing director of Phelan Green Group, added, “Securing these license and engineering agreements with Johnson Matthey completes the technology backbone of our project. Their team’s support has been instrumental in getting us here. We are now ready to turn renewable energy, CO2 and water into sustainable aviation fuel, and to prove that eSAF can be produced at commercial scale, here in South Africa.”