Austrians to make sustainable aviation fuel from frying oil at Antwerp Port

According to the Belgian business newspaper De Tijd, Austrian energy and chemical giant OMV has advanced plans to build a refinery in the port of Antwerp.

At the Kallo plant, waste streams such as used frying oil and other vegetable or animal fats from the food and agricultural sectors could be converted into sustainable aviation fuel, known as SAF. There are currently huge shortages of this biofuel to meet greet targets.

300,000 tons annually

The BioHy project would have the capacity to refine 300,000 tons of organic waste streams annually. SAF can be made from them, as can biodiesel and other renewable raw materials for the chemical industry.

Although OMV itself does not communicate an amount, this would be a major new project for the port of Antwerp, good for an investment of several hundred million euros.

OMV, the parent company of plastics producer Borealis, established the Belgian company OMV Renewable Fuels and Feedstock in 2023 and has already released start-up capital of 20 million euros for its BioHy plant.

Decision in 2025

The permit application is underway, and the Waasland port has already approved a long lease allowing OMV to use a piece of land next to the site of its subsidiary Borealis in Kallo until 2069.

“The final investment decision depends on obtaining a final permit and prior approval by OMV’s board of directors,” says spokesperson Peter Gräve from Vienna. The decision is currently planned for 2025.”

For OMV, the project is also part of its plan to reduce its CO2 impact to zero by 2050. “Our target is to produce 1.5 mn tons of sustainable fuels and chemical feedstock annually by 2030, helping us move toward net-zero emissions by 2050,” their website reads.

Since March 2022, OMV has produced SAF at its Schwechat refinery in Austria. In Romania, OMV will also build an SAF facility and two green hydrogen facilities at the Petrobrazi refinery. The company has an agreement with Airbus, among others, to supply SAFs.

 

Up to 500 billion liters needed

With the announcement of the BioHy project, Belgium will soon have a second SAF plant. During Princess Astrid’s recent economic mission to Brazil, Terra Mater, based in the North Sea Port, announced that it wants to produce sustainable SAFs using ethanol from Brazil.

It is no coincidence that more and more factories are moving toward producing SAFs. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) expects the global aviation industry to need between 400 and 500 billion liters of SAF annually by 2050, depending on aviation growth scenarios and technological advances.

In 2024, SAF production volumes reached 1.3 billion liters, double the 600 million liters produced in 2023. Since the beginning of this year, fuel supplied by airlines must have at least 2% SAF mixed in for all flights from airports in the EU. That share rises to 6% by 2030, to 20% by 2035, and 70% by 2050.

But SAF is still accompanied by growing pains. Production cannot keep up with demand, and the fuel is up to four times more expensive than conventional kerosene.

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