Biofuels firm Ecoceres running new 420,000-tpy Malaysia plant at near full capacity
Ecoceres' new plant in Malaysia that turns used cooking oil into sustainable aviation fuel is running at near-full capacity, the biofuel producer's CEO said.
The plant, Malaysia's first for SAF, is situated at Tanjung Langsat in Johor Bahru near Singapore's border and can produce up to 420,000 metric tons per year of SAF, hydrotreated vegetable oil - also known as renewable diesel - as well as bio-naphtha.
The plant is running at around 95% of its nameplate capacity, Ecoceres CEO Matti Lievonen said at an inauguration event for the plant, which opened in October.
Ecoceres, jointly controlled by Hong Kong's city gas company Towngas and U.S.-based Bain Capital, exported its first SAF cargo from the plant in December, to Europe, which Lievonen said accounted for the major part of demand.
It also has an eye on Asia as countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Japan start rolling out mandates for the green aviation fuel. Malaysia itself is exploring a possible 1% SAF blending mandate.
Ecoceres, which has operated a separate biofuel plant in east China since 2021, now directly supplies airlines such as Air New Zealand, Qantas, Air France and Lufthansa rather than going through traders, Lievonen said.
Feedstock has mostly been procured from China, Malaysia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, he added.
Ecoceres' Zhangjiagang plant, which can produce up to 350,000 tpy of SAF and HVO, won government export quotas last year as China began regulating its nascent SAF market, Lievonen said.
Ecoceres is making plans for a third plant, he added, without saying where it would be located.
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