Velocys plc (VLS.L), the sustainable fuels technology company, has announced that its collaboration partner, Toyo Engineering Corporation (TOYO) is starting the advanced engineering and design phase of a commercial scale biofuel refinery in Japan.

TOYO’s engineering study will start to establish commercial-scale production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in Japan.  During this phase of the project, TOYO will integrate biomass gasification, Velocys’ Fischer Tropsch (FT) technology and other process technologies to efficiently convert woody biomass into SAF.  This project is part of the “Biojet Fuel (or SAF) Production Technology Development Project” of the Japanese Government’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

This announcement follows on from the news that the demonstration project successfully produced SAF from woody biomass feedstock using the Company’s proprietary FT technology and enabled the first commercial flight with wood-based fuel.

Henrik Wareborn, CEO of Velocys, said: “This step towards a commercial-scale biorefinery in Japan shows the increasing momentum of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel market.  This announcement of a woody biomass project and last week’s announcement of the e-fuels project also with TOYO, build upon our successful demonstration last year.

“Velocys is well positioned to deliver its proprietary FT technology to biorefinery projects that convert a range of renewable feedstocks into the low carbon, sustainable fuel that airlines need to meet their carbon reduction goals, without having to make any adjustment to engines or fueling systems.”