The Latvian company developing the Baltic’s largest sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project, NorSAF, has agreed to collaborate with UK clean-tech company Nova Pangaea Technologies to develop an advanced ethanol production plant in Latvia to supply NorSAF’s SAF facility.
The project will use locally sourced wood waste to make ethanol using Nova Pangaea’s proprietary technology.
The partnership aims to address Europe’s growing challenge of meeting increasing demand for SAF while developing more resilient and locally sourced feedstock supply chains.
Over the coming decade, SAF production must scale up dramatically. Under EU regulations, aviation fuel suppliers are required to sharply increase the share of SAF at EU airports, rising from 2% in 2025 to 6% in 2030, and jumping to 20% by 2035.
Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA® technology converts waste biomass, such as woody and agricultural residues that are plentiful in Latvia, into ethanol and biochar, a valuable co-product which permanently captures carbon and makes the whole process carbon negative.
Janis Kisiels, founder and board member of NorSAF, said: “By tapping into Europe’s own abundant waste resources, particularly those available in the Baltic region, we can build a resilient, domestic supply chain from the ground up. Our partnership with Nova Pangaea is a crucial milestone in developing that strategic capability right here in Latvia, ensuring our future SAF production is sustainable, secure, and locally anchored.”
Jonathan Wood, CCO of Nova Pangaea, said: “This strategic collaboration will ensure we have carbon-negative ethanol to feed NorSAF’s SAF project, using locally sourced biomass waste.”
This partnership builds on Nova Pangaea’s work with British Airways and LanzaJet on Project Speedbird, a UK government-supported initiative to develop SAF from non-food agricultural and woody biomass.
NorSAF currently operates a liquid oil and chemical product storage and transshipment terminal in the Liepāja Special Economic Zone (LSEZ) and is working on developing a SAF and eSAF production facility at the Port of Liepāja using KBR’s PureSAF® technology, originally invented and developed by Swedish Biofuels. Production is currently expected to begin in 2031.
