NorSAF, a joint venture between Avia Solutions Group (parent company of AeroTime) and several Latvian partners, has signed an agreement with US-based energy engineering firm KBR to build what is set to become Europe’s first 100% drop-in SAF production plant in Latvia.
This production facility will be located within the Liepaja Special Economic Zone (SEZ), on the Baltic coast, and will have a production capacity of 100,000 tons per year. Its construction will require an investment of over €1 billion, with entry into service planned for 2031. For reference, aviation fuel demand in the three Baltic countries, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, is around 400,000 tons per year.
The plant will use PureSAF technology, which was developed by Swedish Biofuels AB, and licensed, in turn, to KBR for its global commercial deployment. The US firm will act as the project’s industrial partner.
The PureSAF technology makes it possible for the fuel produced using this pathway to be used, in principle, unblended, since it contains the aromatic components required by existing aircraft engines and fuel systems.
It is worth noting that current aviation regulations allow only for the use of up to a 50% blend of conventional and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). However, the industry expects this limit to be dropped in the near future, as several OEMs are testing, so far with promising results, the use of 100% SAF on aviation engines.
The Latvian plant will be able to produce both biogenic and synthetic SAF, also known as e-SAF. The former is made from bioethanol while the latter involves a process that combines renewable hydrogen, produced via an electrolysis process powered by renewable energy, with captured biogenic carbon dioxide.
The press release announcing this deal underlines that the construction of the plant will require the firming by the different partners of their respective commitments to the project.
