Two Rival Projects Now Want to Build a Billion-Litre Jet Fuel Plant in One Town
Energy
Key Facts
—The plan. Energis8, also known as E8R, targets about 1 billion litres of sustainable aviation fuel a year, with key planning done by year-end.
—The money. Capital spending of $1.3bn, with 40% equity and 60% debt. Startup is set for 2031.
—The model. Tolling: customers deliver their own ethanol and pay a fee per litre for conversion, insulating Energis8 from fuel-price swings.
—The feedstock. The plant would need 1.7 billion litres of ethanol a year — a conversion of roughly 1.7 litres in for every litre out.
—The site. Paulínia, São Paulo state, chosen for proximity to Guarulhos and Viracopos airports.
—The complication. A separate American-backed project, JetBio, also plans a billion-litre ethanol-to-SAF plant, with Paulínia among its candidate sites.
The Energis8 SAF plant would turn Brazilian ethanol into jet fuel at a scale that barely exists anywhere, and it is not the only billion-litre project with its eye on the same small town.
Chief executive Marcos Guerra told Reuters the company expects to produce around a billion litres of sustainable aviation fuel a year. Important planning should be finished by December.
To understand why that number is large, compare it to the world. Global SAF output was roughly two point seven billion litres last year, about three tenths of one percent of jet fuel demand.
What the Energis8 SAF plant would actually do
Sustainable aviation fuel is jet fuel made from renewable inputs rather than crude. It is chemically equivalent to conventional kerosene, so aircraft need no modification.
The route here is alcohol to jet: take ethanol, rearrange the molecules, get kerosene. Brazil has ethanol in abundance, historically from sugarcane and increasingly from corn.
The project is forecast to need one point three billion dollars of capital spending and to start running in 2031. That works out at roughly one dollar thirty of capital for every litre of annual capacity.
Forty percent of the funding is expected from equity, the rest from debt. Guerra controls eighty-five percent of the company, with three unnamed executives holding the balance.
The feedstock requirement is the number to hold onto. One point seven billion litres of ethanol a year go in for a billion litres of fuel out, a volumetric yield near fifty-nine percent.
The clever part is the business model, not the chemistry
Energis8 does not intend to buy ethanol. Under a tolling model, customers supply their own and pay a fee per litre to have it converted.
That single choice changes the risk profile entirely. The company never owns the molecule, so it is not exposed to the gap between ethanol costs and SAF prices — it sells a service, not a commodity.
Guerra says the arrangement works out cheaper for clients than spot prices. It also solves his financing problem, since lenders look more kindly on toll revenue than on a merchant spread.
On price convergence he is candid that SAF costs more than fossil kerosene today. He argues parity arrives eventually, and that the shift to renewables will not reverse.
Two billion-litre plants, one town
Here is the detail that complicates the picture. JetBio, controlled by the American group Summit Agricultural Group, has been planning what it calls the world’s largest commercial ethanol-to-SAF plant, also at a billion litres a year.
One of its candidate sites is Paulínia. Its chief executive has put the plant at roughly twenty-five times the size of a comparable facility in Georgia, the first in the world designed to make jet fuel from ethanol.
The two differ in timing and purpose. JetBio wants to break ground in the second half of 2027 and send about ninety percent of output abroad; Energis8 is targeting 2031 and a tolling model aimed at nearby airports.
Set both against the market. The mines and energy ministry has estimated Brazil would produce around one point six billion litres of SAF from 2027, which one of these projects alone would nearly fill.
The demand is legislated rather than hoped for. Under the Fuel of the Future law, domestic airlines must start cutting flight emissions through SAF from 2027.
Brazil already accounts for about three quarters of South America’s planned SAF capacity, with four of the region’s seven projects. Energis8’s timetable puts it last through the door.
When would the Energis8 SAF plant start producing?
The company targets 2031, with the important planning work due to finish by the end of this year. That is four years after Brazil’s blending obligation for domestic airlines begins in 2027, so the plant would arrive into a market other producers reach first.
What is a tolling model and why does it matter?
Customers deliver their own ethanol and pay Energis8 a fee per litre to convert it into jet fuel, so the company never buys or sells the fuel itself. That removes exposure to the volatile gap between ethanol prices and SAF prices, which is the risk that has stalled other biofuel projects.
Can Brazil supply enough ethanol for all this?
This plant alone would consume one point seven billion litres of ethanol a year, and it is one of several projects competing for the same molecules alongside the existing fuel and export markets. Feedstock availability, rather than technology or demand, is the constraint the sector keeps naming.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When would the Energis8 SAF plant start producing?
The company targets 2031, with the important planning work due to finish by the end of this year.
What is a tolling model and why does it matter?
Customers deliver their own ethanol and pay Energis8 a fee per litre to convert it into jet fuel, so the company never buys or sells the fuel itself. That removes exposure to the volatile gap between ethanol prices and SAF prices.
Can Brazil supply enough ethanol for all this?
This plant alone would consume 1.7 billion litres of ethanol a year, and it is one of several projects competing for the same molecules alongside the existing fuel and export markets.
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