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Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) said its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project in Alexandria has reached advanced development stage with permits and approvals underway, main contracts being finalised, and financing arrangements in progress.
The $570 million project is being implemented by Egyptian Sustainable Aviation Fuel Company (ESAF), a subsidiary of ECHEM, and is designed to produce 120,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of SAF, with startup planned for 2029.
ECHEM said in its latest annual report that process licensor selection remains ongoing as part of the project’s development phase.
In December 2025, Egypt’s official State Information Service (SIS) had announced that ESAF signed a licence agreement with US-based Honeywell UOP to deploy advanced hydrotreating technology for the project. It said the project will convert used cooking oil as raw material while cutting an estimated 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.
The agreement was signed by ESAF Chairman Tamer Heikal and Honeywell’s Matt Spalding, Vice President for Honeywell Energy and Sustainability Solutions (ESS) for Asia Pacific, Middle East, North Africa and India.
While the statement didn’t go into technical details, Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining technology, developed in collaboration with Eni, enables the conversion of waste fats, oils and greases into fuels, including diesel and SAF, according to the company’s website.
In December 2025, IATA had said the estimated SAF output for 2025 of 1.9 million tonnes is a downward revision from IATA’s earlier forecasts due to lack of policy support to take full advantage of the installed SAF capacities. It said SAF prices exceed fossil-based jet fuel by a factor of two, and by up to a factor of five in mandated markets.
(Writing by Dennis Daniel; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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