Phelan Green Hydrogen, a subsidiary of Phelan Green Group, has licensed technologies from Johnson Matthey Catalyst Technologies (JM CT) for a proposed electro sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) plant in South Africa’s Western Cape.
The facility, to be built in Saldanha Bay, is part of the broader Phelan Green Hydrogen Project, which is expected to involve an investment of R47bn ($2.9bn).
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Construction on the eSAF plant is scheduled to begin by the end of this year.
The licensing agreement marks the initial phase of the project and is expected to lead to the creation of one of the first commercial-scale eSAF plants globally.
Phelan Green Group managing director Blair Phelan said: “Securing these licence 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.”
Once operational, the Saldanha Bay eSAF facility aims to produce approximately 35,000 tonnes (t) of eSAF each year for sale in European Union (EU) and UK markets. This output could account for up to 6% of the EU and UK’s required eSAF volumes for 2030.
Plans call for production capacity to rise to around 140,000t annually after all phases have been completed.
Johnson Matthey will provide its HyCOgen technology, which employs a catalysed system to transform carbon dioxide and electrolytic, or green, hydrogen into carbon monoxide. The process then combines this carbon monoxide with additional hydrogen to yield syngas.
HyCOgen is used in tandem with FT CANS technology, co-developed by Johnson Matthey and bp, to convert syngas into synthetic crude oil. This oil is subsequently upgraded into synthetic paraffinic kerosene, the basis for sustainable aviation fuel.
JM CT CEO Alberto Giovanzana said: “Phelan Green’s plans for an eSAF facility in the Western Cape are a landmark project. 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.”
In April, Honeywell’s renewable fuel processing technology was chosen for the Saldanha Bay eSAF facility. The plant will use Honeywell UOP’s Fischer–Tropsch (FT) Unicracking technology, converting FT liquids and waxes produced from CO₂ into eSAF that meets aviation industry standards.
