In South Africa, Phelan Green Hydrogen, part of Phelan Green Group, has announced it has licensed technologies from Johnson Matthey Catalyst Technologies (JM CT) for its planned electro‑sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) facility in the Western Cape.
Construction of the facility in Saldanha Bay is expected to begin by the end of 2026 and is part of the wider Phelan Green Hydrogen Project, which expects investment of R47 billion (more than £2 billion).
The licence win represents the first phase of the Phelan Green Hydrogen project, which, when completed, is expected to be one of the world’s first commercial-scale eSAF production facilities.
In the first phase, the Western Cape facility will have the capacity to produce around 35,000 tonnes of eSAF annually, intended for sale into the EU/UK markets, assuming compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, including Renewable Fuels of Non‑Biological Origin (RFNBO) criteria and relevant third‑party verification.
That will be the equivalent of producing up to 6 percent of the EU and UK’s mandated eSAF volumes for 2030.
Once all phases are complete, the facility is expected to supply around 140,000 tonnes of eSAF in total each year.
Securing these licences and engineering agreements with Johnson Matthey completes the technology backbone of our project. Their team’s support has been instrumental in getting us here. We are now ready to turn renewable energy, CO2, and water into sustainable aviation fuel, and to prove that eSAF can be produced at a commercial scale, here in South Africa, said Blair Phelan, Managing Director, Phelan Green Group.
Johnson Matthey’s HyCOgen technology uses a catalysed process to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and electrolytic (green) hydrogen into carbon monoxide (CO).
This CO is then combined with additional hydrogen to form syngas. HyCOgen technology integrates with FT CANS technology, jointly developed and co-owned by JM and bp, to convert syngas into synthetic crude oil, supporting overall process efficiency.
This synthetic crude oil will then be upgraded to produce synthetic paraffinic kerosene.
Phelan Green’s plans for an eSAF facility in the Western Cape are a landmark project. It will be one of the world’s first commercial-scale eSAF facilities and a clear signal that SAF can scale today. It also marks Johnson Matthey’s first deployment of HyCOgen and FT CANS in Africa, commented Alberto Giovanzana, CEO of JM CT.
