CATAGEN welcomes VINCI Airports’ leadership to Belfast to showcase sustainable aviation fuel innovation

Belfast-based net-zero technology company CATAGEN welcomed 170 executives from VINCI Airports network, including the president and the CEO of VINCI Airports to showcase how their decentralised sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production system could support future airport decarbonisation ambitions.

The event was hosted at CATAGEN’s Net Zero Campus in Belfast where its SAF company ClimaHtech Green Flight showcased CATAGEN’s patented BIOHGEN and E-FUEL GEN reactor technologies. The technologies are designed to enable SAF production closer to renewable energy sources, sustainable feedstocks and potential points of demand.

Unlike conventional SAF plants that are centralised and require significant capital investments with long development timelines and large amounts of renewable energy and feedstocks, ClimaHtech Green Flight has developed a decentralised, modular production model.

Each ClimaHtech Green Flight system is prefabricated, rapidly deployable, powered directly by renewable electricity, and optimised to match local energy and feedstock availability.

The approach is intended to support the production of SAF closer to available renewable energy resources, sustainable feedstocks and airport demand, contributing to future compliance with UK and European SAF mandates.

VINCI Airports is actively supporting the deployment of SAF across its network as part of its broader commitment to the decarbonisation of air transport. Today, SAF is available at 18 airports across the VINCI Airports network.

Mel Courtney, CEO of ClimaHtech Green Flight, said: “Our decentralised SAF production model is designed to operate alongside renewable energy and sustainable biomass resources, enabling fuel production closer to where it may ultimately be used. Through our collaboration with VINCI Airports, we look forward to exploring how this approach could support airport decarbonisation ambitions in the UK and internationally.”

Daniel Owens, CEO Belfast International Airport, said: “We are very pleased to see local innovative companies working with the wider VINCI Group to demonstrate how SAF can be supplied to airports such as Belfast International.”