Velocys, Varhad Capital sign MOU to advance ‘make-in-India’ biomass-to-SAF projects

Velocys announced April 6 that it and Varhad Capital, an India-based biofuel and CO2-removal project-development company, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to advance a new generation of “make-in-India” biomass-to-sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects.

India represents one of the most compelling emerging markets for SAF production globally, according to Velocys, driven by abundant agricultural residues, rapidly growing aviation demand and increasing policy focus on domestic fuel production.

“The opportunity is clear, but success will depend on delivering SAF at a cost and scale that the market can sustain,” Velocys stated. “This collaboration is designed to meet that challenge.”

Under the MOU, Velocys and Varhad will engineer and develop scalable biomass-to-SAF facilities using indigenous agricultural residues as feedstock.

The projects will build on Varhad’s existing operational gasification platform, which is already producing syngas and biochar, and integrate Velocys’ proven Fischer-Tropsch technology to enable a direct, efficient pathway from biomass to liquid fuels.

The initial developments are expected to establish a hub-and-spoke model for SAF production in India, enabling distributed deployment closer to feedstock sources and reducing feedstock-logistics costs, a key factor in achieving cost competitiveness in the Indian market.

The collaboration is focused on delivering “make-in-India” SAF production that can compete with—and in many cases, according to Velocys, outperform—conventional pathways on cost, while also achieving strong lifecycle carbon-intensity performance.

“With an operating gasification platform already in place, we are moving quickly,” said Prasad Dahapute, the founder and managing director of Varhad. “Working with Velocys allows us to translate that capability into fuel production through a proven technology that is aligned with favorable market economics.”

Sachin Joshi, the chief commercial officer at Velocys, added, “India’s SAF opportunity is significant, but it requires solutions that are both technically robust and commercially disciplined. This collaboration is about combining proven technologies in a way that simplifies the pathway from biomass to fuel and enables projects that are both scalable and economically competitive.”

Velocys said its Fischer-Tropsch technology has been demonstrated at commercial scale and is designed for modular deployment, allowing projects to be developed at sizes aligned with available feedstock.

This approach supports faster project development timelines and capital-efficient deployment, which is particularly important in markets like India where biomass resources are widely distributed.

Together, Velocys and Varhad aim to establish a scalable model for biomass-to-SAF production in India, supporting the country’s ambitions for energy security, rural value creation and aviation decarbonization.