Airbus, partners invest in SAF financing fund

Airbus, the Air France-KLM Group, Associated Energy Group, LLC, BNP Paribas, Burnham Sterling, Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc. and Qantas Airways Limited have co-invested in a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) financing fund to accelerate the production of SAF.

The corporate partners worked with investment manager Burnham Sterling Asset Management to establish the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Financing Alliance (SAFFA) investment fund in which Airbus is the Anchor Investor. The commitment from the seven partners is amounting to an aggregate of approximately $200 million.

Each partner brings experience and financial expertise to the fund with the ambition to accelerate the availability of SAF by investing mainly in technologically mature SAF-producing projects using for instance waste-based feedstocks. Investments will be diversified across various SAF production pathways and regions.

Each partner may then enter into priority contracts to secure SAF offtakes from the various projects SAFFA will invest in, for its allocated volumes. SAFFA is focusing on SAF that is eligible for RefuelEU Aviation⁽¹⁾ or CORSIA⁽²⁾ (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) certification. 

SAFFA invested first in Crysalis Biosciences, a tech company dedicated to renewing U.S. chemical manufacturing infrastructure with innovative fuel and chemical production technologies.

The company’s recent accomplishments include acquiring and renovating the Monarch facility, an ethanol plant located in Sauget, Illinois, USA, which was shuttered in 2019.

As of the first quarter of 2024, the plant has completed the upgrades and received the necessary environmental authorizations to resume operations to produce low-carbon intensity SAF and biochemicals.

Wole Shadare