Zaffra, the Topsoe-Sasol e-SAF joint venture, and MB Energy signed a non-binding strategic MoU on June 10 to build the supply and logistics backbone for commercial-scale eSAF in Europe. The deal pairs Zaffra’s Fischer-Tropsch production technology with MB Energy’s terminal network and airport-adjacent logistics, with the 30,000-tonne-per-year Brandenburg eSAF project at the Schwedt PCK refinery as the anchor commercialisation target.
The MoU matters because most of Europe’s announced e-SAF capex and grant funding has gone into production capacity, with downstream logistics — hydrogen sourcing, storage, blending into Jet A-1, terminal access, airport delivery — receiving comparatively little attention as the first commercial plants approach 2030 startup. Zaffra CEO Jan Toschka framed the gap directly: “Commercialising eSAF requires more than production capacity alone – it requires an entirely new supply and logistics ecosystem.” MB Energy CEO Jonathan Perkins echoed the value-chain framing: “Building a successful eSAF market requires strong partnerships across the entire value chain – from production and hydrogen supply to logistics.”
The scope of the cooperation, as stated in the parties’ release, covers hydrogen supply, storage, blending, logistics and airport supply infrastructure. MB Energy SVP for New Energy, Supply and Infrastructure Volker Ebeling represents the downstream side; Toschka the production side. The MoU is non-binding, the standard early-stage commercial vehicle for moving from intent to feasibility before the equity, offtake and capex commitments needed for FID.
Commercialising eSAF requires more than production capacity alone – it requires an entirely new supply and logistics ecosystem.
The Brandenburg anchor is the reason the timing matters now. The Schwedt project, developed by ENERTRAG with Zaffra (the Topsoe-Sasol JV) supplying the Fischer-Tropsch technology and process integration, won a €350 million public funding package announced on May 11 from the German federal government (€245 million) and the state of Brandenburg (€104 million). The developers describe the package as one of the largest public Power-to-Liquid grants committed in Europe to date. The plant will produce over 30,000 tonnes of eSAF annually from 2030 via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, using green hydrogen produced by on-site electrolysis and biogenic CO2 supplied by paper manufacturer LEIPA Georg Leinfelder. ENERTRAG and Zaffra are targeting FID by end-2027. The developers position the volume as covering a meaningful share of the e-SAF that ReFuelEU’s 2030 sub-mandate would imply for jet fuel uplifted in Germany under ReFuelEU Aviation.
The Hamburg-Amsterdam pairing is structurally interesting. MB Energy operates from Hamburg with an established storage-terminal and logistics network across Northern Europe. Zaffra, founded in 2024 as the Topsoe-Sasol JV and headquartered in Amsterdam, controls the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and process integration that Brandenburg will deploy at scale. Pairing the two early gives the project a credible answer to the question European regulators and airline offtakers keep asking: where does the molecule go after it leaves the plant gate, and on what terms.
The forward read is whether this MoU evolves into a binding offtake-and-infrastructure agreement before FID. The 30,000-tonne Brandenburg volume is small versus the e-SAF supply ReFuelEU’s 1.2% 2030 sub-mandate implies across the EU jet fuel pool, but the project is one of only a handful of European e-SAF developments with grant funding, biogenic CO2 secured, and now an explicit downstream commercialisation partner. SAS warned in May that Europe’s e-SAF supply gap is structural; deals like this one are the test of whether the gap closes via project delivery or via mandate revision.
Source: MB Energy press release
