Shandong Haike Chemical selects Axens’ SAF tech to retrofit its refinery

In China, Shandong Haike Chemical Co. Ltd, a Chinese refining and petrochemical company, has selected Axens’ Vegan technology to produce low carbon, cost competitive sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by retrofitting its existing assets.

Vegan® technology is a second-generation hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) solution which processes up to 100% of any kind of lipid, including wastes from agriculture and food industry to produce renewable fuels that are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared with a conventional jet fuel production scheme. 

This new contract with Haike Chemicals is Axens’ first reference for its Vegan technology in Asia and represents a major opportunity to scale up production of SAF in line with recognized international standards (ASTM D7566) and able to meet growing demand from the European and North American markets. According to ATAG, the aviation sector will need around 450-500 million tons of SAF per year by 2050 to meet future demand and deliver its decarbonization targets. The challenge is to ramp up production rapidly to deliver economies of scale and make SAF production competitive.

Haike Chemicals aims to have their first SAF-only unit on stream with high yield on-spec production within 12 months before rolling out the process to other units to become a competitive world-leading supplier of high-quality SAF.