Members of the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) have signed long-term commitments to purchase sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc) linked to Infinium Energy’s Project Atlas, a planned eSAF facility expected to produce approximately 100,000 metric tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel annually.
The commitments are intended to provide the structured, multi-year demand needed to support project financing and move the facility towards a final investment decision (FID). American Airlines will take physical delivery of the fuel and manage associated fuel logistics, while participating SABA members will purchase the environmental attributes through a book-and-claim arrangement.
The procurement includes commitments from companies including AVEVA, Bain & Company, Google and McKinsey, among other SABA members. According to SABA, the contracted volumes are expected to support greenhouse-gas abatement of more than 212,000 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent, broadly comparable to the emissions associated with more than 3,500 commercial flights between New York’s JFK and Los Angeles.
Project Atlas Targets 100,000 Tonnes of Annual eSAF Production
Infinium’s Project Atlas is designed around the production of next-generation electrofuels, or eSAF, using captured waste carbon dioxide and renewable energy.
Unlike conventional SAF pathways that primarily rely on biological feedstocks such as used cooking oil, animal fats or agricultural residues, Infinium’s technology converts captured CO₂ into synthetic hydrocarbons that can be processed into aviation fuel.
The resulting eSAF is intended to be a drop-in fuel compatible with existing aircraft and aviation fuel infrastructure.
Infinium was selected earlier in 2026 through SABA’s procurement process for next-generation SAF projects. The latest commitments represent the subsequent demand aggregation and contracting stage intended to help advance Project Atlas towards construction.
Long-Term Offtake Addresses SAF Financing Challenge
A central feature of the transaction is the use of long-term SAFc purchase commitments to provide greater visibility over future demand.
New SAF and eSAF facilities can face a financing challenge because production costs remain substantially higher than those of conventional jet fuel, while project developers need sufficiently predictable revenues to secure debt and equity financing.
SABA’s procurement model aggregates demand from corporate buyers and channels it into agreements associated with new SAF production.
“Long-term, bankable offtake is often the missing puzzle piece that keeps new SAF plants from getting financed and built,” said Kim Carnahan, CEO of GMA and Head of the SABA Secretariat.
The Project Atlas agreements are therefore structured not simply as voluntary corporate purchases, but as a mechanism intended to provide a demand signal to a new production project before its final investment decision.
American Airlines to Take Physical Fuel
The transaction separates the purchase of environmental attributes from the physical movement of the fuel.
SABA members will purchase SAFc, while American Airlines will act as the physical offtaker. The airline will receive the fuel and oversee logistics, while the participating corporate buyers receive the associated environmental attributes under the book-and-claim structure.
American will also facilitate allocation of the corresponding Scope 3 emissions reductions to participating SABA members.
American Airlines Chief Sustainability Officer Jill Blickstein said the commitments demonstrate how customers can participate alongside airlines and fuel producers in developing the SAF market.
The structure allows companies to support SAF production even when the physical fuel is not delivered directly to aircraft used for their employees’ travel or freight operations.
Book-and-Claim Model Expands Access to SAF
Under a book-and-claim system, the physical fuel and the associated environmental claim are separated.
A corporate buyer can therefore purchase SAFc associated with qualifying SAF production while an airline or another fuel user receives the physical fuel elsewhere in the supply chain.
For companies with geographically distributed business travel and freight emissions, this can make participation in SAF procurement possible without requiring physical fuel delivery at every airport where their operations take place.
SABA said its procurement infrastructure includes a SAFc Registry, SAFc Accounting and Reporting Guidance and a Sustainability Framework designed to support the integrity and traceability of transactions.
The alliance also noted that recent guidance from standard-setting organisations, including the Science Based Targets initiative, has recognised environmental attribute certificates generated through book-and-claim systems as a mechanism for addressing hard-to-abate value-chain emissions.
Project Atlas Could Supply European RFNBO Market
In addition to serving voluntary corporate customers, Infinium plans to produce RFNBO-compliant eSAF for European regulatory markets.
Renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) are subject to specific sustainability and renewable-energy requirements under the European regulatory framework. Compliance could therefore provide Project Atlas with access to European demand in addition to voluntary corporate SAF procurement.
The combination of voluntary SAFc purchases and potential regulatory-market sales is intended to broaden the project’s prospective customer base.
SABA Has Aggregated $500 Million in SAF Demand
The Project Atlas procurement forms part of SABA’s wider effort to aggregate corporate demand for sustainable aviation fuel.
SABA said it has now aggregated approximately $500 million in SAFc demand from more than 35 member companies.
The alliance’s procurement model is focused on creating demand for both existing and emerging SAF technologies, with the latest procurement specifically targeting next-generation production pathways.
Bain & Company’s Chief Sustainability Officer Sam Israelit said high-integrity market mechanisms can translate corporate demand into longer-term investment signals for emerging SAF technologies.
RMI CEO Jon Creyts similarly said investment is required now if novel SAF technologies are to become operational at the scale required to address future aviation fuel demand.
eSAF Faces Cost and Scale-Up Challenges
The commercial case for eSAF remains closely linked to production costs, access to low-carbon electricity, availability of suitable CO₂ and the development of reliable long-term markets.
SABA members’ commitments provide one component of the investment framework, but the project’s progression to FID and financing will still depend on the final commercial and technical structure.
Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund, said e-fuels have potential as a pathway for aviation decarbonisation but acknowledged that they are more expensive to produce.
Project Atlas will therefore provide a test of whether aggregated corporate demand, physical airline offtake and regulatory-market access can collectively support financing for a large-scale eSAF facility.
Bioenergy Business Analysis
The Project Atlas procurement is notable because it connects corporate SAF demand directly with the financing requirements of a new production facility. Rather than purchasing only from existing supply, SABA’s model is designed to provide forward demand for a project that has yet to reach FID.
The project’s proposed use of waste CO₂ and renewable energy also places it within a different part of the SAF feedstock landscape from lipid- and biomass-based pathways. If Project Atlas proceeds, its development will provide another commercial reference point for synthetic SAF and for book-and-claim procurement as a mechanism for mobilising corporate demand.
