Brazil’s GranBio has grandes planos for SAF

opinion

by Fayaz Hussain

August 11, 2025

Brazil’s GranBio has big plans. It wants to build a 1bn gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production capacity pipeline over the next decade. It is working on developing sites in both south and north America while looking at Europe as a key export market for second generation (2G) feedstock.

As the SAF market seeks diverse feedstocks that do not compete with food, GranBio says it has scalable and cost-effective solution to meet this challenge. And that solution is 2G ethanol produced with non-food competing biomass.

GranBio says it’s AVAP technology, which has logged more than 10,000 operational hours, is the solution global SAF producers need. This process converts a range of diverse feedstocks to ethanol for conversion to SAF.

“We’re essentially turning waste into biofuels, with the potential to achieve the lowest carbon footprint in the market,” said Granbio.

The company has successfully completed conversion trials with waste feedstocks like forest residues, agricultural waste, construction debris and sugarcane bagasse into 2G ethanol.

“We’ve gone through all of that over the years and are now at the point where we can reliably and economically produce advanced ethanol from waste,” GranBio told SAF Investor. The company said that their expertise in 2G ethanol gives them edge over other players in the space opening up eligible markets for ethanol feedstocks.

While their focus so far has been on 2G ethanol, the company is now taking the next steps towards SAF production. Earlier this week, the company signed an agreement with Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) to develop a cellulosic SAF production facility at RYAM’s Jesup, Georgia site, scheduled for fourth quarter 2027 startup.

The project is partially financed through a $100m US Department of Energy grant won by GranBio in 2023. Under the partnership, RYAM will provide infrastructure including feedstock, utilities and logistics for the project.

“I am very pleased to strengthen our collaboration with RYAM and work toward our joint goal of developing clean energy solutions, while improving the communities in which we work,” said GranBio CEO Bernardo Gradin.

GranBio says this approach of using existing assets offers multiple advantages, including: reduced capital expenditure through infrastructure reuse, accelerated project timelines and diversification opportunities for partners into high-growth biofuel markets.

In Brazil, GranBio is already working on transforming its Bioflex facility in Alagoas, in the country’s north east, into the comprehensive Exygen biorefinery with a R$1.5bn ($0.28m) investment. After facing initial challenges, the company has redesigned the project to convert sugarcane processing residues in to multiple products, targeting Q4 2026 startup.

One of those will be 2G ethanol – a key feedstock for SAF production. Similar to its approach in the US, GranBio has partnered with three regional firms – Usina Caeté, Impacto Bioenergia, and Central Açucareira Santo Antonio. The partners will supply molasses to be used as material. This allows GranBio to focus on its technological strengths while ensuring reliable feedstock supply. The company said the ethanol will be exported across the world to be converted into biofuels including SAF.

The project will expand Exygen site’s capacity to 120m litres with the potential to grow it to 200m litres. The plant will be funded primarily through equity while being eligible for additional incentives and tax benefits from Brazil’s recently enacted federal law, ‘Combustível do Futuro’.

The law aims to create a competitive market for SAF with goals to introduce a SAF mandate from 2027 with a 10-year time period, which will extend the blending requirement to 10% by 2037.