PALMOILMAGAZINE, SINGAPORE – Apical, an integrated palm oil company, in collaboration with its subsidiary Bio-Oils and partner Cepsa, has announced plans to construct the largest second-generation biofuel mill in southern Europe.
The €1.2 billion facility aims to produce 500,000 tons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel annually, which would be sufficient to enable 1,300 flights. Additionally, the mill is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 3 million tons per year, equivalent to the emissions of 600,000 unused buses.
Pratheepan Kanuragaran, Executive Director of Apical, highlighted the challenge of accessing sustainable materials in many countries. However, with Apical’s global-scale partnership still under development, they hope to utilize palm oil waste and used palm cooking oil to produce SAF.
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“By constructing the new mill, it is hoped, there would be solution on the main challenge in the industry that has something to do with raw materials,” he said, as in the official statement to Palmoilmagazine.com, Monday (26/2/2024).
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cepsa, Maarten Wetselaar said that the mill construction would be the first main pillar from their positive motion strategy. The project is hoped not to be the benchmark in Europe only in rain molecule but also would facilitate decarbonization in the sectors that could not operate with electron, such as, aviation industries.
The mill also stands out because of its sustainable environment. By applying the latest technology and digital concept, the mill would deliver minimal impacts for the environment, would produce CO2 emission 75% less than traditional biofuel mills. Besides, the facility would use reclamation water and renewable hydrogen in its production, reduce fresh water consumption in around the mill.
By escalating its production capacity twice to be 1 million tons per year, the mill is hoped to deliver answer the increasing demands. Apical is getting cooperation with other oil companies in many countries to construct SAF facility in Singapore and Asia, as the response to what Singapore planned that encouraged environmental fuel in aviation sector in 2026.
In the recent days, Singapore regulated SAF use for every aviation. This would be in 2026 and Apical did welcome it. They believed the deeper collaboration would help escalate SAF adoption within economic price, profitable for consumers and flights, and also would make decarbonization go forward in aviation sector. (T2)
