Zaffra winning the eSAF lottery

opinion

by Oscar Henderson

June 1, 2026

Lots of people think about what they would do if they won the lottery. Buy a house? Book a trip to the Maldives? One thing most people advise you not to do is tell too many people.

Jan Toschka, CEO, Zaffra, is definitely going against traditional lottery wisdom.

Zaffra, along with project partner ENERTRAG, just won the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) lottery with a €350m investment grant from the German federal government (€245m) and the state government of Brandenburg (€104m). He is definitely telling people.

The funds will be used to construct their eSAF project, Brandenburg eSAF, formerly known as Concrete Chemicals. This amounts to the largest public funding for eSAF in Europe. Ever.

“There is remarkable political support for this project,” Toschka tells SAF Investor.

The grant will cover 70% of the total capital expenditure (CAPEX) required for project construction. This will cover reimbursable costs such as refining equipment, construction materials and labour costs. The remaining 30% (€150m) needed will come from a combination of equity and a small portion of debt financing.

“What matters now is to permanently stabilise the energy supply at the PCK refinery and in the region, to strengthen growth potential in a targeted way and to stimulate new investment,” said Katherina Reiche, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Germany. “The Brandenburg eSAF project we are funding is a central pillar of this effort: it combines industrial strength with innovation, opens up new value chains, and creates long-term prospects for employment, prosperity and energy security.”

Zaffra is keen to have the remaining investment come from offtakers, but it is also having conversations with banks and other investors, especially those who understand the SAF mandates and are already involved in SAF project financing.

The project aims to produce in excess of 30,000 tonnes of eSAF annually from 2030. This would cover a quarter of Germany’s share of the European RefuelEU eSAF sub-mandate.

Brandenburg eSAF is the first “stepping stone” for Zaffra, explains Toschka. It was sized deliberately to enable financing and offtake as well as guarantee access to biogenic carbon dioxide and green hydrogen for feedstock supply. It will also act as a lighthouse project leading the way for Zaffra’s bigger projects planned in China, Finland, Spain and Sweden.

The majority of SAF projects, especially eSAF, are stuck at a point where financing cannot be achieved without a guaranteed revenue stream, often in the form of binding long-term offtake agreements.

The amount of government grant money provided to Zaffra can now enable offtake agreements, rather than the other way around.

As significant as this deal is, Toschka is under no illusion that there are still major challenges ahead.

“Without active policy involvement, a single project is unlikely to be sufficient to convince fuel suppliers and airlines to commit to offtake agreements across the broader project pipeline. Stronger political support is needed. That said, significant progress has been made,” says Toschka.

However, they (offtakers) have certainly been more inclined to return Zaffra’s calls since the grant announcement.

“After the announcement, offtakers who have taken a long time to return our calls are now contacting us,” explains Toschka.

Winning the lottery is certainly life changing and, in the case of SAF, definitely deserves to be shouted about.