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# Haffner Energy's SB-HEFA Skips the Gas Phase, Targets 50% Lower SAF Costs
- URL: https://review.iffw.sg/haffner-energys-sb-hefa-skips-the-gas-phase-targets-50-lower-saf-costs/
- Published: 2026-09-29T00:30:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T00:30:15.000Z
- Description: Haffner Energy launched SB-HEFA, converting solid biomass directly into a HEFA-ready liquid without a syngas phase, targeting a 50% cost reduction versus conventional pathways. The company will target renewable diesel first, then SAF from 2030, timed to the EU's rising blending mandate.
- Author: Editor
- Tags: News, Aviation, SAF

Haffner Energy has launched SB-HEFA (Solid Biomass to HEFA), a new process for producing renewable diesel and SAF that converts solid biomass directly into a liquid intermediate using the company's proprietary thermolysis technology, skipping the syngas stage that conventional biomass-to-liquid pathways rely on. The company is targeting an approximately 50% reduction in levelised production cost compared with other pathways, including conventional HEFA, a target based on Haffner's own techno-economic modelling rather than an independently verified figure.

### What Makes This a Genuinely Different Fifth Pathway 

Haffner's thermolysis process normally produces oil that is immediately converted into non-condensable gases for making syngas, hydrogen, methane or methanol. SB-HEFA instead extracts and stabilises that thermolysis oil directly through immediate cooling, then applies filtration and hydrodeoxygenation, technology already used commercially in the existing HEFA industry, without ever passing through a gas phase. 

Haffner states the resulting oil differs fundamentally from conventional pyrolysis oil, including fast pyrolysis oil, due to lower oxygen content, lower acidity, and very low residual solid particle content, properties the company says make it far better suited to hydrotreatment. This adds a fifth distinct production route to the SAF landscape, alongside HEFA (waste oil hydroprocessing), alcohol-to-jet (ethanol conversion), e-SAF (renewable electricity and captured CO2), and Fischer-Tropsch gasification.

### The Economics Haffner Is Betting On 

The company's central argument rests on feedstock cost: used cooking oil traded in Europe at roughly €1,000-1,200 per tonne in 2026 (equivalent to €100-120 per MWh of primary energy), while the residual solid biomass feeding SB-HEFA typically costs €10-30 per MWh, a roughly fivefold difference. Haffner separately estimates SB-HEFA's capital expenditure at approximately one-third that of a solid-biomass-to-liquid-fuels plant built around Fischer-Tropsch or methanol synthesis, attributing the gap to the shorter, simpler conversion chain and the fact that the hydrodeoxygenation step itself draws on already-industrialised HEFA technology rather than a novel, unproven process.

### Renewable Diesel First, SAF to Follow 

Haffner will initially target renewable diesel rather than SAF specifically, citing diesel's roughly 34% share of refined petroleum products against kerosene's 9%, a market Haffner frames as nearly four times larger by volume. The company also notes renewable diesel faces fewer technical and regulatory constraints than SAF, since it is chemically similar enough to fossil diesel to serve as a direct substitute, unlike conventional biodiesel (FAME). For SAF specifically, Haffner plans to pursue ASTM qualification via the D4054 accelerated evaluation ("Fast Track") process, citing the precedent set by HC-HEFA, the first pathway to use that route before incorporation into the ASTM D7566 SAF specification, targeting commercial SAF deployment from 2030, timed to coincide with the EU's minimum SAF blending mandate rising to 6% that year under ReFuelEU Aviation.

### The Business Model Behind the Announcement 

SB-HEFA is structured as a licensing business, distinct from Haffner's existing equipment-sales model exemplified by its CORE100 programme. The company states each €1 million in licensing upfront fees or royalties is equivalent in EBITDA terms to roughly €3 million in equipment-sales revenue, and plans to eventually take equity stakes in selected projects for recurring operational revenue. A dedicated entity, SAF Zero, will lead SB-HEFA's commercial development, financed by external partners specifically to avoid drawing on Haffner's own resources or diluting existing shareholders; the company states it is in advanced discussions with an investment bank to help identify those industrial and financial partners.

### What Remains Unconfirmed 

Haffner plans to commission a first complete industrial demonstrator "as early as 2027/2028," while non-hydrotreated oil can already be produced today at its existing Marolles site. No specific demonstrator capacity, named aviation-sector partners, or committed financing for SAF Zero have been disclosed; the company states "several major players in the aviation ecosystem" have entered discussions, without naming them.

*Source:* [*Haffner Energy*](https://www.haffner-energy.com/wp-content/uploads/pr-sb-hefa-20260922.pdf?ref=review.iffw.sg)*, 22 September 2026.*