Aether Fuels and Singapore-based FlyORO Technologies have signed a non-binding, non-exclusive memorandum of understanding to jointly explore SAF supply-chain, blending and downstream logistics for Project Beacon, Aether’s planned commercial-scale demonstration facility inside Singapore’s Aster Energy and Chemicals Park at Pulau Bukom. The MOU, announced May 11, covers Project Beacon and future Aether SAF projects, with FlyORO contributing its AlphaLite modular blending platform and Aether bringing its Aurora production technology.
The pairing brings blending and downstream handling into the conversation at the pre-FID stage, ahead of mechanical completion, even though the MOU itself commits neither party to volumes.
Project Beacon is designed for an output of up to 50 barrels per day, or approximately 2,000 tonnes per year, with lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions expected to come in at more than 70 percent below conventional jet fuel. Aether’s Aurora platform converts industrial waste gas and biomethane into the fuel, drawing on a feedstock pool distinct from the waste oils, tallow and distillers’ corn oil that HEFA relies on. Construction is targeted to start in 2026 with commercial operations in 2028. The site itself, the former Shell Pulau Bukom complex, was sold in April 2025 to a Chandra Asri / Glencore joint venture (CAPGC) and rebranded as the Aster Energy and Chemicals Park, so the host counterparty for any Project Beacon utility, feedstock and offtake interface is now Aster rather than Shell.
Singapore is one of the few markets where advanced fuel production, airport demand, logistics capability and policy momentum can come together at meaningful speed.
That quote, from FlyORO Chief Executive Jonathan Yeo, is the strategic logic for putting the project where it is. Singapore is co-located with refining capacity at the Aster site, airport demand at Changi, and the CAAS-administered SAF Levy and centralized procurement vehicle SAFCo, which will aggregate airline demand and procure SAF on the sector’s behalf. The 1 percent uplift target tied to that scheme has been deferred to 2027, and volumes are calibrated against the levy revenue pool rather than imposed as a supplier blending obligation. FlyORO states its AlphaLite platform, a 40-foot modular SAF blending unit, has reached Technology Readiness Level 9, and was deployed in 2025 with Wagner Sustainable Fuels and Boeing at the dedicated SAF blending terminal at Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport in Queensland. FlyORO reports it has blended more than 500,000 litres of SAF across deployments by May 2026.
Aether founder and CEO Conor Madigan framed Project Beacon as the first commercial test of the Aurora platform: “Project Beacon is intended to demonstrate Aether’s breakthrough Aurora technology in commercial operation and unlock new and more abundant waste carbon feedstocks for SAF production.” Aether, with offices in Singapore and Chicago, has positioned Aurora as a waste-carbon-to-fuel pathway aimed at both aviation and ocean shipping.
The MOU is explicit: non-binding, non-exclusive, no financing or volumes disclosed, and no commitment to offtake. Project Beacon has not reached final investment decision. Worth watching: whether MOUs of this type, signed before FID, harden into firm offtake on the timeline construction lenders need, and whether other planned Southeast Asian SAF projects sign similar blending agreements at the MOU stage rather than after commissioning.
Source: Aether Fuels press release
