70 million euro financing commitment for INERATEC

INERATEC is building Europe's largest e-fuel plant in Frankfurt. The fresh capital will be used to drive forward sustainable fuel production for aviation.

Luxembourg/Karlsruhe, March 5, 2025 - The Karlsruhe-based company INERATEC has received a financing commitment to build Europe's largest production plant for synthetic fuels in Frankfurt. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing the company with EUR 40 million in venture debt financing. In addition, INERATEC will receive a grant of up to 30 million euros from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst. This investment underlines the strategic importance of e-fuels for hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as aviation.

Through partnerships like the EU Breakthrough Catalyst initiative, we are enabling a green transition in transport and helping to make the price of e-fuels more economical.

Nicola Beer, EIB Vice-President

Production of sustainable aviation fuel

The new plant is expected to produce up to 2,500 tons of e-fuels per year. INERATEC will use its power-to-liquid technology, which converts green hydrogen and biogenic CO2 into synthetic crude oil. This can be further processed into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), marine fuel or e-diesel. By using CO2 that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, e-fuels help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

INERATEC is well on the way to demonstrating that e-fuels can be produced economically on a large scale with financial start-up support. For the decarbonization of aviation, we need real projects - so that we can bring costs down and attract investors.

Mario Fernandez, Head of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst

The raw materials for production come directly from the Frankfurt-Höchst industrial park. The CO2 is obtained from a biogas plant that recycles waste, while the hydrogen is a by-product from the chemical industry. Thanks to the modular concept of the production facilities, INERATEC can flexibly adapt its technology to different locations.

Scaling for the growing market

Following successful pilot projects, INERATEC is now planning to scale up its technology in order to make synthetic fuels economically viable on a large scale. The increasing demand for sustainable fuels is being driven by legal requirements, among other things: The EU regulation ReFuelEU Aviation stipulates that airlines must blend at least 1.2 percent synthetic kerosene from 2030.

The demand for sustainable fuels is particularly high in aviation. For example, a long-haul flight from Frankfurt to New York consumes around 80 tons of kerosene. With the new INERATEC plant, part of this demand could be covered by synthetic alternatives.

Significance for the energy transition

The financing by the EIB is part of the InvestEU program and is additionally supported by the European Innovation Fund. The project is an example of successful cooperation between public and private partners to promote innovative energy technologies.

INERATEC CEO Tim Boeltken sees the financing as a milestone: "With this investment, we can drive forward the industrial production of e-fuels and thus make a significant contribution to the decarbonization of aviation." EIB Vice-President Nicola Beer also emphasizes the importance of such projects for a sustainable economy.

The new production plant in Frankfurt is an important step towards establishing e-fuels as an alternative to fossil fuels. In the long term, the technology could not only make aviation more sustainable, but also supply the chemical industry with climate-friendly raw materials.