UAE Targets EU For Future SAF Exports

As the United Arab Emirates (UAE) progresses production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), it is eyeing major export opportunities to other markets such as the European Union (EU), which is struggling to scale up its own SAF production.

 

In its national SAF strategy, the UAE has set an annual production target of 700 million liters (185 million gal.) of the fuel by 2030 from as many as five production plants. Some sites are new, while others will be upgrades of existing facilities.

 

Of the 700 million liters, it has quantified that exporting at least half to “more mature policy regimes” such as the EU could bring in a cumulative $1.7 billion in revenue by 2030. 

 

Multiple projects have been committed or commenced in the UAE.

 

MENA Biofuels is developing a commercial-scale plant in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone to convert used cooking oil and other waste-based feedstocks into SAF, initially producing 125 million liters per year, but planning up to 250 million liters.

 

Late last year, Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar and waste management group Tadweer joined forces to annually convert around 500,000 tons of solid municipal waste into SAF by combining gasified garbage and green hydrogen to create syngas, then fuel.

 

And in January, global investment fund SAFFA, which is focused on accelerating SAF production, announced a $30 million investment in a “Middle East project” by Dubai-based SAF One Energy Management, on which construction will start this year with the aim of commencing SAF production in the 2028 fourth quarter.

 

The UAE is planning to develop SAF from multiple sources, including recycled fats, oils and greases, municipal solid waste and even oil extracted from saltwater-tolerant plants, or halophytes.

 

But it is particularly focused on longer-term production of power-to-liquid, or synthetic fuels, created by combining green hydrogen with captured carbon dioxide, then reprocessing this as liquid fuel.

 

This dovetails with an EU sub-mandate for SAF, which requires synthetic product to be included in blended supplies from 2030, initially comprising a mandated 0.7%, rising to 35% by 2035. It also progresses another key ambition of the UAE to become a major producer of green hydrogen, which is made by combining renewable electricity and water, using locally produced solar energy.

 

While the UAE is focused on helping other markets to meet their own SAF targets, at home it has a “voluntary target” of 1% SAF, produced locally, to be blended in fuel supplied to its airports by 2031. No usage mandates apply to its own airlines.