Airbus and partners launch fund to invest in sustainable aviation fuels, worldwide

Europe-based global major aerospace group Airbus announced, at the Farnborough airshow on Tuesday, that it was, with airline, energy and financial partners, co-investing in a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) financing fund. The other partners in the fund were the Air France-KLM group, US-based global aviation fuels and services supply chain management company Associated Energy Group, France-based global bank BNP Paribas, US-based international financial advisory group Burnham Sterling, Japan-based international leasing and financial services company Mitsubishi HC Capital, and Australia’s Qantas Airways.

The purpose of the fund, denoted as the SAF Financing Alliance (Saffa), is to accelerate the production of SAF. Airbus is the anchor investor in the fund. The seven partners have committed an aggregate amount of about $200-million to the Saffa.

“Each partner brings experience and financial expertise to the fund with the ambition to accelerate the availability of SAF by investing mainly in technologically mature SAF-producing projects using for instance waste-based feedstocks,” explained Airbus, in its statement. “Investments will be diversified across various SAF production pathways and also by region.”

Once the Saffa has identified projects to invest in, the alliance’s members will conclude priority contracts with these producers, to source their allocated volumes of SAF produced by these projects. The Saffa was focused on SAF projects that were eligible for certification by the global Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (better known as Corsia) or the EU’s ReFuelEU initiative.

The fund has already made its first investment. This was into US group Crysalis Biosciences. This is a technology company focused on rejuvenating the US chemical manufacturing industry, by means of innovative chemical and fuels production technologies.

“The company’s recent accomplishments include the acquisition and renovation of the Monarch facility, an ethanol plant located in Sauget, Illinois, USA, which was shuttered in 2019,” highlighted Airbus. “As of the first quarter of 2024, the plant has completed the upgrades and received the necessary environmental authorisations to resume operations with the aim to produce low carbon intensity SAF and biochemicals.”