Nova Pangaea, NorSAF to develop Baltic’s largest SAF project

The UK cleantech firm Nova Pangaea Technologies will collaborate with NorSAF – the company behind the Baltic’s largest Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) project – to develop an advanced ethanol production plant in Latvia to supply the new facility.

The plant will use locally sourced wood waste to make ethanol using Nova Pangaea’s proprietary technology. The partnership aims to address the challenge of meeting Europe’s increasing demand for SAF while developing more resilient and locally sourced supply chains.

Under EU regulations, aviation fuel suppliers are required to sharply increase the share of SAF at EU airports, rising from 2% in 2025 to 6% in 2030, and jumping to 20% by 2035.

Nova Pangaea REFNOVA technology converts waste biomass into ethanol, which can be used to make SAF, as well as biochar, a valuable co-product which permanently captures carbon and makes the whole process carbon negative. The ethanol produced in the new plant will be used to supply planned SAF production facility of NorSAF in Latvia.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), there is sufficient waste biomass available in Europe to produce enough SAF to meet Europe’s SAF targets for 2050.

Jonathan Wood, CCO of Nova Pangaea, said, “This strategic collaboration will ensure we have carbon-negative ethanol to feed NorSAF’s SAF project, using locally sourced biomass waste. This is a blueprint for the type of partnerships we need to scale SAF production in the UK, Europe and beyond – enhancing energy security, building a new domestic industry that generates jobs and economic growth while reducing fossil-fuel emissions.

Janis Kisiels, Founder, NorSAF, stated, “By tapping into Europe’s own abundant waste resources, particularly those available in the Baltic region, we can build a resilient, domestic supply chain from the ground up. Our partnership with Nova Pangaea is a crucial milestone in developing that strategic capability right here in Latvia, ensuring our future SAF production is sustainable, secure, and locally anchored.”

The partnership builds on Nova Pangaea’s work with British Airways and LanzaJet on Project Speedbird, a UK government-supported initiative to develop SAF from non-food agricultural and woody biomass.