Germany's Uniper signs offtake deal for synthetic green jet fuels

FRANKFURT, Sept 23 (Reuters) - German state-owned utility Uniper signed a deal to procure synthetic sustainable jet fuel (eSAF) from US-based Arcadia eFuels, the companies said on Wednesday.

Uniper will buy 40,000 metric tons of the fuel annually for more than 10 years, supplied by Arcadia eFuels' Endor project in Denmark, under the agreement, which the companies in a statement said was one of the largest eSAF offtake agreements to date.

Aviation is among the toughest industries to decarbonise, leaving green fuels with lower emissions than conventional jet fuel as one of the few options to cut air travel pollution.

"The key challenge now is to move sustainable aviation fuels from promising projects to industrial scale," said Uniper CEO Michael Lewis. "For Uniper, it is also an important step in building a strong position in a market with significant growth potential," he added.

Supplies are expected from the early 2030s and would cover the fuel equivalent of around 1,000 Boeing 787-9 flights from Duesseldorf in Germany, where Uniper is based, to Abu Dhabi each year, the companies said.

"eSAF is not only a fuel of the future – it is a present-day answer to the aviation sector's demand for diversification of supply, and today's agreement brings that solution meaningfully closer to expanding production within the EU," Arcadia eFuels CEO Amy Hebert said.

The EU required 2% of fuel made available at regional airports to be SAF in ​2025, rising to ⁠6% in 2030, while eSAF must account for 1.2% of the total from 2030, rising to 5% in 2035.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alexander Smith)