Portugal's 40,000 mt/year SAF project set for 2023 FID, Eur600 million investment

Portugal's Navigator Company and Hamburg-based P2X-Europe are to join forces to create P2X-Portugal, an industrial-scale production facility for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the companies said July 22.

A final investment decision for the up to Eur600 million ($612 million) project is planned for mid-2023 with an integrated production site at Navigator's Figueira da Foz site to produce up to 40,000 mt/year of synthetic products from 2026, it said.

The project, granted "Project of National Interest" status by the Portuguese government, leverages Iberia's highly competitive renewable energy with "several hundred MW of new renewable energy capacity" and biogenic CO2 captured in Navigator's biorefinery using sustainable forests, it said.

The partnership enables Navigator to add value to the 280,000 mt/year of CO2 captured from its pulp and paper production, while P2X-Europe's parent companies Mabanaft and H&R Group can ramp up supplies to the chemical sector and green jet fuel for the aviation industry, it said.

The P2X-Portugal production facility at Navigator's biorefinery halfway between Lisbon and Porto will be integrating several innovative technology components and use proven conversion processes with green hydrogen at its core, it said.

FID is pending availability of competitive renewable energy, appropriate setting of the EU Delegated Act defining green hydrogen, satisfactory long-term offtake commitments, and obtaining adequate EU and Portuguese government sponsored investment incentives, it said.

S&P Global Commodity Insights assessed the cost of producing renewable hydrogen in the EU at Eur19.06/kg July 22 (Netherlands, PEM electrolysis including capex) based on Dutch month-ahead power prices.

The European SAF-Jet Fuel Spread meanwhile was assessed at $1673.09/mt July 22, Platts pricing data by S&P Global showed.