Latvian aviation fuel developer NorSAF has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UK-based Nova Pangaea Technologies to construct a dedicated advanced ethanol facility in Latvia, establishing the country's first domestic feedstock pipeline for Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ) Sustainable Aviation Fuel production.

The plant will process locally sourced forestry residues and agricultural waste using Nova Pangea's proprietary REFNOVA conversion process, yielding industrial ethanol and biochar. Output will feed NorSAF's planned SAF and eSAF production hub in the Liepāja Special Economic Zone (LSEZ), engineered around KBR's PureSAF technology — originally developed by Swedish Biofuels — with commercial operations targeted for 2031.

Why does the European SAF sector need a domestic alcohol route?

The MoU frames the project as a structural answer to feedstock import dependence. Under the EU's ReFuelEU Aviation regime, SAF blending obligations rise from 2% in 2025 to 6% in 2030 and 20% by 2035.

The bloc's current SAF output leans heavily on Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) pathways, which depend on imported feedstocks — chiefly used cooking oil sourced from Asian markets.

NorSAF founder and Board Member Janis Kisiels said: "Europe cannot strengthen its energy security simply by reducing fossil-fuel imports. We also need to build the industrial capacity to produce the clean fuels that will replace them."

He added: "By tapping into Europe's own abundant waste resources, particularly those available in the Baltic region, we can build a resilient, domestic supply chain from the ground up."

What does REFNOVA bring to the Baltic supply chain?

Nova Pangea's core extraction processes originated at the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (LSIWC) in Riga before the company scaled the technology in the United Kingdom. The MoU effectively returns that technology base to its country of origin, redirected from the original wood-chemistry research mandate toward an aviation-fuel end market.

The waste streams in scope — forestry residues and agricultural by-products — sit in the advanced-feedstock category under the EU's renewable energy directive framework, a designation that determines eligibility for SAF blending credits and premium pricing.

How does this fit NorSAF's broader Baltic build-out?

The MoU deepens a previously announced collaboration between NorSAF and KBR on the Liepāja project and consolidates NorSAF's vertically integrated plan across the Baltic aviation fuel value chain. Avia Solutions Group, the world's largest ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) provider, sits as a strategic partner through its Baltic Ground Services subsidiary, giving the developer direct access to airport-side fuel logistics.

The configuration — regional waste aggregation, domestic ethanol conversion, and AtJ processing in a single special economic zone — is intended to compress the unit logistics costs that have historically eroded SAF project economics.

What comes next for the Latvian facility?

The MoU is non-binding and sits ahead of the permitting, offtake and engineering milestones required before any ground is broken. The 2031 commercial-operations target aligns with the EU's 6% blending mandate taking effect in 2030 and the 20% mandate in 2035, giving both companies a regulatory window rather than an immediate commercial one.

A binding agreement, an LSEZ site allocation, and feedstock supply contracts with regional forestry and agricultural waste generators are the immediate gating items. The next verifiable milestone will be a final investment decision tied to those contracts — or, in its absence, an updated project timeline ahead of the 2030 mandate year.