Japan’s Saffaire Sky Energy signs UCO deal with Hanshin Stadium

Hanshin Electric Railway announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production company Saffaire Sky Energy to supply used cooking oil (UCO) to be used as feedstock.

Under the agreement, Hanshin will supply UCO from Hanshin Koshien Stadium to Saffaire Sky Energy for its planned SAF manufacturing equipment.

Saffaire will manufacture SAF using the UCO as a raw material at Japan’s first domestically produced large-scale SAF production plant, built in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. The company plans to begin supplying the oil from April 2025.

Hanshin also plans to implement a similar initiative at Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation SGL Stadium Amagasaki (Amagasaki City), which is due to open in March of this year.

Saffaire Sky Energy was established in November 2022 by JGC Holdings, Cosmo Oil, and Revo International with the aim of large-scale domestic SAF production for the first time in Japan.

The company completed upgradation of the site at the end of last year at the Cosmo Oil Sakai Refinery in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, and the company aims to supply approximately 30,000 kiloliters of SAF per year using only domestic waste edible oil as a raw material.

The company plans to further accelerate business development toward building an SAF supply chain and start supplying domestically produced SAF from around April 2025.