Verso Energy Announces €1 Billion Investment to Produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Presented on July 12th at the Chavelot ecopark, the project Ep’Hyne (Epinal Hydrogen and New Energies) carried by Verso Energy envisages the construction of a state-of-the-art sustainable aviation fuel production unit. On 21. 5 hectares of land, four production units, including an electrolyzer and a synthetic kerosene plant (known as eSAF or e-kerosene), will be commissioned by 2029, representing an investment of around one billion euros.

Producing sustainable aviation fuel from biomass: the Verso project

Verso Energy, a French company founded in 2021, develops hydrogen and solar projects. Its Ep’Hyne project is based on the capture of CO2 from industries already established on the Ecoparc. “We will take CO2 from biomass already used to produce paper or cardboard. This process will therefore generate neither new biomass nor additional CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere,” explains its CEO and founder Antoine Huart.

This fuel will be based on the hydrogen obtained by electrolysis of water and biogenic carbon dioxide, from the other industrialists of the Chavelot Ecopark, with whom agreements are being finalized.

A project in symbiosis with the territorial industrial ecology approach of the Green Valley

The Vosgesian industrial and territorial ecology (ITE) approach “Green Valley” built around this Ecopark does not lack for potential suppliers of CO2. Its historical pioneer, the Norwegian papermaker Norske Skog , has been encouraging the establishment near its factory of cooperating industries for the past twenty years. “The occupants of the ecopark already know how to pool their electricity and heat resources. Ep’Hyne’s decarbonisation project is a perfect fit for the industrial ecology approach we are taking in the Green Valley,” says Michel Heinrich, President of the Epinal agglomeration community.

The 73-hectare ecopark filled up in two years. It already hosts four factories of the manufacturer of insulators Pavatex . The Soler Group will soon set up a biocarbon plant there, a substitute for fossil molecules extracted from biomass.

A project meeting the new environmental standards of the aviation sector

This is Verso Energy’s fourth sustainable aviation fuel project. By 2030, the European Refuel EU Aviation Act establishing a regulatory framework for the energy transition of air transport will come into force. To bring aviation closer to carbon neutrality by 2050, it will force airlines landing on European runways to incorporate an increasing proportion of synthetic kerosene.

Ep’Hyne is expected to eventually generate 250 direct and indirect jobs. “We are extremely grateful to the Epinal Agglomeration Community for their continued support and shared vision for the future of renewable energy. The signing of this sales promise marks a major step in our commitment to produce a sustainable aviation fuel, which will contribute to the French and European objectives of decarbonisation of the aviation sector. This project illustrates our determination to innovate and contribute positively to the energy transition throughout the national territory,” announced Antoine Huard.

Sources:

Verso Energy prévoit d’investir un milliard près d’Epinal | Les Echos

https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/verso-energy-veut-injecter-1-milliard-d-euros-dans-la-production-d-e-saf-pres-d-epinal.N2216193

https://www.tabletteslorraines.fr/article/verso-energy-s-installera-sur-l-ecoparc-de-chavelot

https://www.lagazettefrance.fr/article/verso-energy-s-installera-sur-l-ecoparc-de-chavelot