PySAF: Biogenic Refinery Co-Feed for Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Blend wall: 1–2 wt% reflects published commercial co-processing of raw pyrolysis oils; the 10–15 wt% window is consistent with continuous pilot FCC tests of conditioned biocrudes at 10–12 wt% blends. Recovery and coke: Ourlin, Torres-Martí, Venderbosch, Celebi, Karahan, Mathieu & Corma, "Integration of pyrolysis bio-oils of varying upgrading levels in FCC co-processing with VGO: Benefits and limitations", Fuel 417 (2026) 138622, doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2026.138622. SDPO (stabilised and de-oxygenated) is the closest published analogue to PyXCrude; the HPO case at 76% has additionally been hydrotreated, a downstream step outside PySAF's conditioning platform. The same study found raw fast-pyrolysis bio-oil caused severe catalyst deactivation even at 5 wt%, concluded pre-treatment before FCC integration is essential, and reports phenolic compounds as the most refractory oxygenates, accumulating in the product slate, a limitation PySAF's conditioning step is designed to address upstream. Installed base: Hydrocarbon Processing and IEA FCCU databases (~400+ is the conservative, widely cited figure; reported ranges run 340+ to 430+ active units). Throughput: ~6 kbpd at a 10 wt% blend equals roughly 0.3–0.4 Mt/y of renewable carbon per unit. European count: regional refining and FCC market analyses for EU/UK/Norway. PySAF has not yet run FCC co-processing trials on PyXCrude itself. The 10–15 wt% window is a target derived from published results on comparable conditioned biocrudes; qualification trials with refining partners are the purpose of the current programme.