According to the company’s website news release on February 13, 2023, Sasol Chemicals will deliver its latest Fischer-Tropsch (FT) catalyst to Ineratec, in one of several recent commitments to support promising renewable liquid fuels projects. The FT catalyst will be used in the lighthouse project the Karlsruhe-based clean tech company is currently building at Industriepark Hoechst near Frankfurt, Germany.
The project is based on the company’s recent operational success at industrial demonstration scale. According to Ineratec, the new facilities will become the largest production plant for paraffinic synthetic fuels in the world. The plant’s output is estimated to reach up to 2,500 tons per year, starting as early as 2023. The catalyst provided by Sasol Chemicals will make a significant contribution to produce high amounts of the target products, which is largely designated for refinement into Sustainable Aviation Fuels. “Synthetic fuels are a cornerstone in the global challenge to reach our climate goals”, said Ineratec co-founder and General Manager, Philipp Engelkamp. “Our goal is to quickly build up production capacities. Together with our partners, we want to over succeed the required quota for SAF in 2030.” Ineratec plans to develop the technology on a global scale and will invest over 30 million Euros in this first plant alone. The German Government also strongly supports the project and provides funding of around 6 million euros within a funding program of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.
“We are in the fortunate position to aid our partners in pushing the envelope when it comes to synthetic fuels”, Dr. Dirk Schär, Manager Technical Marketing at Sasol Chemicals, has commented. “Sasol’s high-grade products are an integral part of many chemical processes. By making commitments such as this one, we are assisting others to realise what we ourselves have chosen as our mission for Sasol Chemicals: Innovating for a better world!”
Sasol continuously invests into research and development to further improve its products and is also a leading partner of CARE-O-SENE project, a government-supported consortium of German and South-African organisations that aims to improve the performance of catalysts in the FT-synthesis to accelerate the large-scale production of sustainable aviation fuels. Ineratec and Sasol also partners in the CARE-O-SENE project.
