Brazil is advancing in the global race to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), with R$31 billion ($6.1 billion) worth of projects by Petrobras, Acelen and JetBio beginning to move forward. Acelen, owned by the UAE's Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, signed an agreement on July 10 to purchase soybean oil for its Bahia project, valued at around R$15 billion ($3 billion).The plant, to be built on the site of a refinery in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia, will initially use soybean oil and used cooking oil, with plans to shift toward macaúba palm oil in the future. The company has already sold 90% of its projected annual output of one billion liters and expects to begin operations in 2029. "The project is already underway," said Luiz de Mendonça, CEO of Acelen Renováveis.
Petrobras has approved a R$6 billion ($1.1 billion) investment in a dedicated SAF facility in Cubatão, São Paulo, with an annual production capacity of 870 million liters and a planned start-up in 2030. The state-controlled company is also studying an ethanol-based SAF project in Paulínia, currently in the basic engineering phase.
JetBio, part of the U.S.-based Summit Agricultural Group, expects to approve a R$10 billion ($2 billion) billion investment in a plant in Paulínia in 2027, with operations also scheduled to begin in 2030. The company abandoned a U.S. project after losing support from the Trump administration and shifted its focus to Brazil, prioritizing exports.
