World Energy to boost Sustainable Aviation Fuel output to 340 million gallons per year

Decarbonising aviation is increasingly critical and will require significant investment. World Energy has produced Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) on a commercial scale at its Paramount, Southern California facility since 2016. The site was the first commercial-scale SAF production plant in the world and remains North America’s only such facility.

World Energy has confirmed plans to increase the output of its Paramount operation to 340 million gallons per year. On Friday, the company announced it had secured the necessary permits to expand its Southern California plant, part of a USD 2 billion project that will increase capacity by up to 700 percent. The company is partnering with Air Products, the world’s largest hydrogen producer, and industrial company Honeywell, whose UOP’s Ecofining^TM technology has been used at the Paramount location since its inception. World Energy is also working with more than 15 other leading firms to accelerate the decarbonisation of our skies.

“We are pulling together the very best companies in the world with the expertise, experience, commitment and focus to collaborate on pushing the frontier of what can be done to decarbonise aviation today while building a platform for what needs to be done to decarbonise flight entirely by 2050,” said Gene Gebolys, CEO of World Energy. 

SAF produced by World Energy is made from renewable resources with no fossil-based feedstock. The partnership will deliver the “most technologically advanced production and distribution hub ever constructed” which they claim will remove 76 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) by 2050.  

Air Products is already building the world’s largest green hydrogen facility with partners in Saudi Arabia. The collaboration with Air Products will advance the green hydrogen transition, says World Energy. The company noted that its partner has already extended its Southern California hydrogen pipeline network to supply hydrogen to the existing World Energy production and distribution hub.