SK Energy has become the first domestic refinery to export sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to Europe.
The European Union (EU) has mandated that all aircraft taking off in the region use a minimum of 2% SAF since January of this year. Currently, Europe is the only global market that has made SAF usage mandatory.
Equipped with a mass production system for SAF, SK Energy succeeded in exports as soon as the EU mandated the use of SAF, aiming to seize the market.
Previously, SK Energy completed a co-processing production line in September of last year and began commercial production of SAF. Co-processing is a method that connects a separate pipeline for bio raw materials to existing petroleum product lines to produce SAF and low-carbon products such as bio-naphtha.
SK On Trading International, a subsidiary of SK Innovation, invested in a waste resource-based raw materials company, and SK Energy successfully produced and exported SAF, completing the value chain from raw material supply to production and sales.
Based on this, SK Energy plans to continuously expand the global SAF market, including domestic supply in the first half of this year.
Lee Chun-gil, head of SK Energy's Ulsan CLX, said, "We plan to promote the expansion of SAF production and exports while closely monitoring market conditions, including changes in domestic and international SAF policies and fluctuations in demand."