French producer lets contract for grassroots SAF plant

Low-carbon energy producer Elyse Energy SAS has let a contract to thyssenkrupp UHDE to deliver technology for a proposed sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant to be built in southwestern France’s Lacq Industrial Park on a 45-hectare site in Pardies.

Under the Mar. 19 contract, thyssenkrupp will license its proprietary PRENFLO gasification technology that, as part of Axens SA’s BioTfueL—including its BioTfueL and GASEL technologies—will use green hydrogen to produce SAF from end-of-life wood waste and local forestry residues, thyssenkrupp and Elyse Energy said.

This latest contract follows an initial agreement signed for Axens’ BioTfueL technology system in 2024, the parties said.

Anticipated to become France’s first SAF commercial plant, the estimated €1-billion Lacq SAF project—led by Elyse Energy on behalf of partners Axens, BioneXt LAB, Avril SCA, and IFP Energies nouvelles subsidiary IFP Investissements—completed basic engineering in November 2024, with detailed engineering works now under way, according to thyssenkrupp and Elyse Energy.

While current capacity details were not immediately revealed, Elyse Energy previously said in a June 2023 release that the proposed plant— a key building block in the development of a French SAF production industry in line with the French government’s roadmap to net-zero and the ReFuelEU Aviation European regulation—would be equipped to produce 75,000 tonnes/year (tpy) of SAF and 35,000 tpy of e-bionaphtha.

Scheduled for start of construction this year, the plant is slated for commissioning by 2029, at which time it will supply SAF amounting to a 30% volume equivalent of the annual consumption of France’s Bordeaux Mérignac airport, according to Elyse Energy.