The Neste refinery in Rotterdam isn't a beautiful place, even between rain showers. The current expansion of the site at Maasvlakte means it has a half-built look about it, and with a coal power station pumping smoke into the sky close by, Cosco and Evergreen tankers moored on the far side of the Yangtze Canal, and the constant noise of construction traffic penetrating even the mandatory ear plugs, it's hard to see it as the future of anything, let alone carbon-free flight. Yet when the refinery completes its €1.9 billion (US$2 billion) expansion in 2026, it will be one of the largest Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production facilities in the world.
If you enjoy international travel, but find the subject of SAF boring, the next few years may be challenging. Airline websites will encourage you to pay a supplement on your ticket so that a proportion of the fuel used for your flight is SAF; a SAF mandate will be added to increasing numbers of flights from certain airports and countries (the Netherlands and France already do so); and there will be articles like this one examining the subject. To understand why SAF is so important, and also to dig a bit deeper around some of the more problematic elements, I visited the Neste refinery to learn more. And to be absolutely transparent, I went on a private jet arranged by Victor, the on-demand jet charter platform.
First, the background.
