Acelen Renewables Secures $1.5 Billion to Build Billion-Litre SAF Biorefinery in Brazil

Acelen Renewables, the renewable fuels company of Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Capital, has secured $1.5 billion to construct a renewable fuels biorefinery in the Brazilian state of Bahia, with production capacity of 1 billion litres annually of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. The facility, expected to begin operations in 2029, will use HEFA technology with macaúba palm oil and conventional feedstocks.

Acelen Renewables was launched by Mubadala Capital at COP28 in 2023 and is developing an integrated ecosystem for renewable fuels production in Brazil. The biorefinery will produce SAF and hydrotreated vegetable oil renewable diesel from feedstocks including soybean oil, used cooking oil, and the macaúba palm tree, and will cultivate approximately 144,000 hectares on degraded land, with 20% dedicated to family farming partnerships. Approximately 90% of planned SAF and HVO commercialisation volumes have already been structured and contracted, according to the company.

The financing consortium includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and HSBC as global coordinators and lead arrangers, alongside a broad group of multilateral and bilateral development finance institutions including IDB Invest, BNDES, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, FinDev Canada, and KfW IPEX-Bank, as well as commercial banks. The diversity and scale of the financing consortium reflects the strategic importance attributed to large-scale SAF production by both public and private capital markets, and signals growing confidence in Brazilian biofuel infrastructure as a viable investment.

Brazil's combination of agricultural scale, industrial expertise, and clean energy infrastructure provides structural advantages for renewable fuels production. The Acelen Renewables project integrates land regeneration, social inclusion through smallholder farming partnerships, and decarbonisation into its business model. For the global aviation decarbonisation agenda — including India's growing aviation sector, which is developing its own SAF policy framework — projects like Acelen's demonstrate the scale of investment required to move SAF from a niche product to a mainstream fuel supply component.

Key figure — $1.5 billion secured to build a biorefinery with 1 billion litre annual SAF and renewable diesel capacity in Brazil