Japan's Cosmo starts delivering SAF from Sakai refinery

: Biofuels
25/04/11

Japanese energy firm Cosmo Energy has started supplying domestic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) produced at the country's first large-scale SAF plant.

This marks the first SAF delivery from the plant housed at refiner Cosmo Oil's Sakai refinery, Cosmo Energy announced on 10 April.

Cosmo Energy's subsidiary Cosmo Oil Marketing delivered SAF to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) at the country's western Kansai International Airport on 10 April. The delivered amount should be 15 kilolitres, based on JASDF's public notice for the tender.

SAF producing joint venture Saffaire Sky Energy — launched by Cosmo Oil, engineering firm JGC and biodiesel producer Revo International — produces this SAF from used cooking oil (UCO) at the plant. The firms aim to supply around 30,000 kilolitres/yr, and plan to begin delivering SAF to domestic airlines Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA), the US' Delta Air Lines, Finland's Finnair, and German logistics group DHL Express in the 2025 fiscal year starting this April.

JASDF's acrobatic flight team Blue Impulse will use the SAF in an exhibition flight scheduled on 13 April, the opening day of Expo 2025, over the event's venue in Osaka.

Separately, an explosion occurred at the Sakai refinery on 10 April, but its 100,000 b/d crude distillation unit (CDU) is still operating, according to Cosmo Oil and the local fire department.

The fire department received a notice from the refinery's staff that "an explosion happened at a sulphuric acid regeneration equipment, with no fires or leaks of LPG." The refinery was heating sulphuric acid for purification when the explosion happened. The SAF plant at the refinery is not affected by the accident, Cosmo said.

By Kohei Yamamoto

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