During its annual press conference on January 21, 2025 at the B612 Innovation Center in Toulouse, the Aerospace Valley Pole specified its roadmap regarding the production of Sustainable Aviation Fabric (SAF). He estimates that Occitania and New Aquitain could produce 40,000 tons per year from 2030.
Essential levers for the decarbonization of air transport and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) will increasingly fill aircraft tanks. Starting from today’s 2%, the European Union will need 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035 and 70% in 2050. In order not to hit the dry, the Aerospace Valley, this would like to carry out Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania. Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania and Occitania from New Aquitain, a SAF production center. The competition center therefore intends, with the support of the authorities, to play the intermediary between the actors of air and those of energy.
First green refineries of 2028
The needs have already been identified. To supply SAF with aircraft operating in the South West in 2030, twice the European regulations 40,000 tonnes of biofuel per year will be required. For 2050, more than 200,000 tonnes per year will need to be produced to achieve 70% inclusion.
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Several production plant projects are located in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques (LACQ), Les Landes (Tartas), Hauutes-Pyrénées (Lannemezan), Haute-Garonne (Muret) and the Pyrénées-Orientales (Perpignan). The first locations could be operational from 2028.
As Bruno Darboux, the president of the Aerospace Valley Pole, explains, the projects are of different types… “Some focus on the production of hydrogen base and carbon cover, others on SAF biomass with agriculture or agroforestry residues, as well as a project as well as a project a mix of both with biomass-enriched vehicles “All of them will probably not arrive, but half would be enough to achieve the goals, he explains.
In order to be able to fill with clean energy, Aerospace Valley and the two regions have also joined the South West Agri competitive estate. This “partnership” must make it possible to secure the quantities of biomass necessary for the development of these future projects.
The Pole also states that in order for these projects to see the light of day, they need public support and private investment. In fact, to get a factory out of the ground that can produce 70,000 tons of sustainable aviation per year requires an investment of one billion euros. This is the price to pay to fire up the engine with decarbonized aviation.
2023-2024 with
Aerospace Valley, the first European competitiveness center in the aerospace sector, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It brings together more than 860 member companies in Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, Poland supported 128 innovation projects. And thanks to the support of its members, 58 have received funding of up to 95 million euros from regional, national and European funding.
During the same period, the Pole organized or co-organized 106 events attended by 4,400 people and which made it possible to secure 2,000 BTOB sessions.