Sasol Ltd and Germany’s Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have agreed to conduct research into substances to help produce sustainable aviation fuel on a commercial scale, the South African company said on Tuesday.

The three-year project, if successful, could help make kerosene – a form of jet fuel – made using renewable sources available by 2025.

The plans calls for Sasol, HZB and a host of German partners to work together to make next-generation catalysts that could trigger chemical reactions, the company said.

It will also employ Sasol’s proprietary Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology for making sustainable aviation fuel.

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“Our expertise in FT technology and catalysts makes us the ideal partner to help Germany and the world decarbonise the aviation sector and make it sustainable over the long-term,” Sasol CEO Fleetwood Grobler.

The launch of the partnership was announced by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was in South Africa on the final leg of a trip to Africa.

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; editing by Jason Neely)

Source: Reuters