SABA selects Infinium and American Airlines for next-generation SAF procurement award

The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) has chosen eSAF producer Infinium’s Project Atlas to supply sustainable aviation fuel certificates under a next-generation procurement process. The Project Atlas proposal, jointly submitted with American Airlines, competed against more than a dozen other advanced biofuels and eSAF projects. Launched in May 2025, the selection involved a multi-stage review and due diligence process conducted by SABA on behalf of its members. The procurement aggregates corporate demand for SAF to address business travel and air freight emissions and converts it into long-term, bankable supply agreements that support project finance and enable scale, explains SABA. American will serve as end-use airline and oversee fuel logistics.

SABA says it evaluated SAF providers against rigorous technical, environmental, financial and operational criteria, including lifecycle emissions reductions, sustainability safeguards, project feasibility and long-term scalability.

Project Atlas has a planned capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year and is targeting a 95% carbon intensity reduction compared to fossil jet fuel. SABA’s participating corporate buyers are expected to enter into long-term, binding and financeable offtake agreements with Infinium to help accelerate commercial deployment, with initial production expected by 2029. Project Atlas will build on two prior Infinium developments in Texas, Project Pathfinder in Corpus Christi and Project Roadrunner in Pecos.

SABA’s procurement approach utilises a book-and-claim model, through which corporate customers will be buying SAF certificates (SAFc) that allow them to invest in SAF and capture the environmental benefits to reflect lower aviation emissions on their climate disclosures (Scope 3), while the physical SAF flows to an aircraft operator, in this case American Airlines.

“We believe voluntary corporate demand can be a catalytic spark to help new SAF production facilities get off the ground,” said Kim Carnahan, CEO of the Center for Green Market Activation and head of the SABA secretariat.

“Infinium’s selection as the winner of our next-gen procurement is an important milestone in proving this out. We look forward to sharing more details on this innovative deal as commercial agreements between the corporate buyers and Infinium are finalised later this year.”

As well as supplying SABA’s voluntary corporate buyers, Atlas will also produce EU-compliant RFNBO eSAF to serve the growing compliance demand in the European SAF market driven by the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation. A dedicated sub-mandate for synthetic eSAF will take effect in 2030 and scale progressively through the decade, providing an expanding market for RFNBO-compliant fuels.

“Being selected for this SABA offtake agreement is pivotal for Project Atlas,” said Robert Schuetzle, CEO of Infinium. “The agreement reflects growing commercial demand for next-generation power-to-liquid fuels and supports the continued development of new domestic production capacity.”

American Airlines’ involvement in the procurement represents its second eSAF agreement with Infinium.

“American was an early anchor offtaker for the Roadrunner project and we were excited to participate in the Atlas project as well,” said Jill Blickstein, the airline’s VP Sustainability. “Our work with Infinium lets us help accelerate the development of SAF technologies that have the potential to reach commercial scale at lower prices.”

SABA is a joint initiative of Environmental Defense Fund, the Center for Green Market Activation and RMI. Previous Scope 3 SAF certificate buyers through SABA include leading companies in technology, entertainment, finance, consulting and pharmaceuticals. Founding members included Bank of America, Boeing, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, JP Morgan Chase, McKinsey & Company, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix and Salesforce.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based eFuels SEA has announced its intention to develop three to five e-fuel production facilities across Southeast Asia using Infinium technology. They would convert captured carbon dioxide and renewable power into eSAF and other ultra-low carbon products.

“Southeast Asia has the industrial capability and policy momentum to implement decarbonisation projects to truly become a leader in electrofuels. There is also an urgent need to reduce dependency on fossil fuels with sustainable energy, thereby enhancing energy security,” said Tienleong Tan, Strategic Advisor, eFuels SEA.

Photo: American Airlines

Christopher Surgenor
Editor