Arcadia eFuels selects Plug Power for electrolyser technology at Denmark SAF plant

LONDON (ICIS)–Arcadia eFuels has selected Plug Power Inc to provide electrolyser technology for its first commercial sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in Denmark, Plug said on Wednesday.

The facility at Vordingborg is expected to move to execution phase by mid-2024 with commercial operation toward the end of 2026. It will have an annual capacity of 100m litres of e-fuels based SAF.

Plug will provide electrolyser technology to produce green hydrogen, which will then be combined with biogenic CO2 to produce syngas, it said in a statement.

Further processing of the syngas will generate carbon-neutral SAF that meets renewable fuels requirements in preparation for EU mandates on aviation fuel, due to start in 2025.

All jet fuel supplied at airports in the EU will be required to have a minimum SAF blend of 2% starting from 2025, as per the ReFuel EU Aviation legislation initiative.

Mandated SAF blending rates in airports across the bloc will increase to 6% by 2030, 20% by 2035, 34% by 2040, before eventually reaching 70% by 2050.

“The global demand for e-fuels continues to grow, and in order to meet these demands, we must build production plants at commercial scale,” said Arcadia eFuels CEO Amy Hebert.

SAFs are aviation-specific biofuels produced from waste and residues from circular economy-based feedstocks such as animal fats and used cooking oils to reduce CO2 emissions from air transport. Synthetic fuels, also known as e-fuels, can be another form of SAF.