France-based global energy company TotalEnergies’ Normandy platform has successfully started production of sustainable aviation fuel1 (SAF). This new site complements the biojet fuel production capacities of La Mède biorefinery (Bouches-du-Rhône) and the Oudalle plant (Seine-Maritime).

This move enables TotalEnergies to meet demand from its customers and respond to French legislation, which calls for aircraft to use at least 1% SAF effective 1 January 2022.

TotalEnergies will also produce SAF at its Grandpuits zero-crude platform southeast of Paris starting in 2024.

TotalEnergies has been involved in numerous sustainable aviation fuel initiatives since 2014. Involvement in SAF moved into a higher gear in 2021 with several firsts in France—including the first delivery of SAF to Charles de Gaulle airport and first permanent SAF supply at Le Bourget—and worldwide, with the first 100% SAF-powered flight of an Airbus helicopter with a Safran engine in Marignane and of an Airbus A319Neo in Toulouse.

Each year, the Normandy platform in northwestern France, comprising a refinery and a petrochemical plant, converts 12 million metric tons of crude oil into some 200 products, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, lubricating oils and plastic pellets. The refinery’s output represents 12% of France’s total refining capacity and the petrochemicals plant accounts for 11% of plastics produced in France. Products from the Normandy platform are sent to 60 countries worldwide.