Airbus bets on alcohol-to-jet as future of SAF in Dunkirk

Airbus this month entered into a joint venture to develop a sustainable aviation fuel production facility in Dunkirk, France. The partners are engineering firm Technip Energies, aviation technology group Safran and French agricultural cooperative Tereos. [caption id="attachment_57297942" align="aligncenter" width="2038"] A rendering of the proposed site in Dunkirk, France. (Courtesy/Technip Energies)[/caption] An investment decision on the facility, which could produce up to 160,000 tonnes of alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) SAF annually, is expected in 2029, with production beginning in the early 2030s, Julien Manhes, head of SAF and carbon dioxide removal at Airbus, told Cargo Facts in an interview . The AtJ process converts alcohol feedstock, such as ethanol, into SAF, according to IATA. The hydroprocessed fatty acid esters and fatty acids (HEFA) pathway, the most common SAF production method by far, involves converting waste oils, such as used cooking oils, into SAF. The partners founded Rebound, a company through which they will fund the project to the end of the final investment decision, amounting to dozens of millions of euros, Manhes said. Construction, which Manhes said will cost hundreds of millions of euros, will be funded by new partners — who will join after the final investment decision — and loans. “We’re still looking for the one true industrial project in continental Europe that will deliver alcohol-to-jet at scale,” Manhes said. “This is what Dunkirk is about.” “We’re still looking for the one true industrial project in continental Europe that will deliver alcohol-to-jet at scale. This is what Dunkirk is about.” — Julien Manhes, head of SAF and carbon dioxide removal at Airbus. SAF sovereignty The Iran war was a wakeup call for aviation, causing stakeholders to realize that affordable access to fuel might not be a given, Manhes said. SAF, unlike conventional jet fuel, has at least two pricing bases: the traditional dollar per tonne of fuel and the dollar per tonne of CO2 emissions abated, David Elward, energy transition lead at energy price data aggregator General Index, said during a June 23 webinar, “The Cost of Sustainable Aviation,” hosted by aviation consultancy IBA and General Index. Currently, each function is a separate market, with the second more challenging because it is opaque, Elward said. Whereas the HEFA market is beginning to develop pricing benchmarks, non-HEFA SAFs lack physical volume, meaning there isn’t a significant spot market for them, he said. But while non-HEFA SAFs like AtJ may be expensive now, they will become less costly as EU SAF mandates increase blending requirements from 6% in 2030 to 70% by 2050, increasing demand for and draining HEFA feedstocks, according to Manhes. “There will be parity, we believe, on alcohol-to-jet,” he said. “Alcohol-to-jet is the next pathway after HEFA.” SAF can be sustainable, but “can also be a question of sovereignty for a country,” Manhes said. “That’s what Dunkirk is about: having sovereign capability of turning ethanol that you can produce as well, regionally or locally.” Though the pressure created by closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war might have eased, questions of sovereignty could still create incentives for stakeholders to invest in SAF, according to Manhes. “The short-term pain of the crisis will fade away,” he said. “But still, it’s a reminder that we have a longer-term issue that we need to address: Will there be enough fuel for the industry?’” Technip Energies could not be reached for comment by publication time. Cargo Facts Symposium 2026, the premier event for the freighter aircraft and air cargo industries, will take place in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 21-23. Find out more and register by Sept. 4 to take advantage of early-bird pricing.

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