Reliable & Efficient Mixing Solutions For Sustainable Aviation

Like renewable diesel, SAF is mainly made from wastes: raw oils and fats such as used cooking oil (UCO), vegetable oils and animal fats. Those raw materials are usually heterogeneous and can contain solids, water, food waste, gums, and fatty acids that must be properly managed before conversion.

In the HEFA process, raw oils are cleaned by several pretreatment steps before entering the reactors:

Industrial agitators ensure a homogeneous feedstock during pretreatment steps such as degumming, neutralization, and bleaching, preventing phase separation and solids or gums settling. By keeping the material consistently mixed, they guarantee uniform distribution of injected chemicals and stable processing conditions.

This effective agitation improves heat transfer and enhances contact between raw oils and treatment chemicals, increasing reaction efficiency and process reliability.

Our mixers operate in neutralization processes where free fatty acids are removed by reacting with an alkaline solution.

Several processes enable the production of SAF. Hydrodeoxygenation remains the most common one.

The raw materials used to produce SAF contain a lot of oxygen. During deoxygenation, this oxygen is removed, usually with hydrogen in a catalytic reactor, hence the process name hydrodeoxygenation.

Firstly, the oils are heated to improve fluidity and then filtered to remove impurities. They are heated again and combined with hydrogen (H₂) to trigger a chemical reaction. This reaction produces water (H₂O), which is removed during a cooling step.

The mixture is then reheated and treated with gases such as methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and hydrogen (H₂) to further refine and adjust the fuel properties. Finally, the products are cooled and separated into different fuel grades, including Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

In feed tanks and reactors, industrial mixers are used to:

• Maintain uniform temperature to avoid hotspots that deactivate the catalyst,
• Ensure the contact between oils and hydrogen to maximize the deoxygenation,
• Prevent heavy fractions or waxes from settling.

After deoxygenation, the hydrocarbons are very linear. Isomerization converts the linear paraffins produced into branched hydrocarbons to improve their cold-flow properties.

Thus, they flow better, crystallize less, and get a lower freezing point. This is critical for SAF, as aircraft can fly at very low temperatures as low as -50 °C (-58°F).

In the intermediate tanks, the agitators keep the hydrocarbon mix uniform, ensuring smooth feeding into the reactor.

SAF is blending with regular jet fuel to be used in current aircraft and then conveyed to the airport. Because SAF blending is classified as a manufacturing process and typically requires laboratory certification, precise and reliable mixing is essential.

High-performance mixers ensure that the final fuel consistently meets strict specification requirements during laboratory testing and release.

SAF cannot currently be used in aircraft as standalone fuel. Before reaching the airport, it is blended with conventional jet fuel to comply with aviation standards such as ASTM D7566 and ASTM D1655.

During storage and handling, industrial side-entry agitators maintain fuel homogeneity and prevent sedimentation. By avoiding hydrocarbon stratification and ensuring uniform distribution of additives, our mixers help guarantee that the blended fuel remains within ASTM specification limits throughout the process.

The result is a stable, fully compliant SAF blend ready for distribution and use in existing aviation infrastructure.