Metafuels Opens Aerobrew Demo Plant, Setting Up Rotterdam's Turbe Facility

Swiss aviation technology company Metafuels has opened its Aerobrew methanol-to-jet demonstration plant at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, converting renewable methanol, produced from green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide, into drop-in synthetic aviation fuel (e-SAF). CEO Saurabh Kapoor described the opening as the moment the company's technology moves from development into operation, with the next focus being scaling toward commercial production in Rotterdam and beyond.

Why This Plant Exists: De-Risking the Real Commercial Facility

The Villigen plant itself is a demonstration unit, not a production facility; its stated purpose is to streamline scale-up and de-risk Metafuels' actual first commercial plant, Turbe, at the Evos terminal in the Port of Rotterdam. PSI researcher Marco Ranocchiari, project lead for the institute's involvement, noted the Aerobrew process had previously only been developed at laboratory scale together with Metafuels; this facility tests the process under real-world conditions for the first time, generating the operational data Turbe's design will depend on.

A Feedstock Approach Distinct From Most SAF

Aerobrew converts methanol into jet fuel via a proprietary catalytic system, and Metafuels' plants are designed to process either bio-methanol or e-methanol interchangeably, allowing production of bio-SAF, e-SAF, or both simultaneously depending on market signals, rather than committing to a single fixed feedstock. That flexibility distinguishes Metafuels from HEFA-based SAF producers constrained by a single, increasingly contested waste-oil feedstock pool, and from single-pathway e-SAF producers locked into renewable electricity and captured carbon alone.

Where Turbe Actually Stands

Turbe was first announced with Evos in May 2025, and Metafuels awarded a FEED contract to McDermott in December 2025 to define the plant's technical specification ahead of a final investment decision. Separate reporting has described planned capacity somewhat differently across different points in the project's development, with earlier coverage citing 12,000 litres per day initially, scaling tenfold to 120,000 litres per day in a second phase, while more recent reporting describes a first phase of 10 tonnes per day by 2028, followed by a 100 tonnes per day facility by 2031. Turbe is targeting production from 2030, aligned with e-SAF sub-mandates under the EU's ReFuelEU Aviation regulation coming into force that year, and secured a €1.92 million Dutch grant in April 2026 to help accelerate the project toward FID.

Part of a Wider European Build-Out

Metafuels is also developing Pizol, a planned production facility in Denmark first announced in 2024, and Scaletta, its largest project to date, in Spain, targeted for completion around 2032 with 100 tonnes per day of capacity. The company has separately secured commercial partnerships with SWISS International Airlines and the Lufthansa Group, and raised USD 24 million in Series A funding in February 2026 to support its move from demonstration toward first-of-a-kind commercial plants.

Source: Metafuels, 20 August 2026.