【2026 Industry Updates】Overview of the latest progress on China’s SAF projects in 2026 — Sinopec
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On January 8, 2026, with the approval of the State Council, Sinopec Group Corporation and China National Aviation Fuel Group Corporation were reorganized. Leveraging the synergies resulting from the merger with CNPC Aviation Fuel, Sinopec announced that it would accelerate its development of green aviation fuel (SAF), initiating expansion projects for SAF production at Zhenhai Refining & Chemical and Maoming Petrochemical simultaneously. By 2027, the annual production capacity of SAF at Sinopec is expected to exceed 500,000 tons. This capacity expansion also represents the first deep integration at the SAF business level following the official announcement of the restructuring between the two parties, and it is not merely a simple increase in scale. In addition, Sinopec’s regional branches have also made arrangements.
On February 6, 2026, the first environmental impact assessment for the 200,000 tons per year sustainable aviation fuel conversion project at the Cangzhou branch of Sinopec Corporation was made public. According to the public announcement documents, the project is located at Sinopec Cangzhou Refining & Chemical Company in Xinhua District, Cangzhou City, with an investment of 789.76 million yuan. The project plans to partially reuse the 600,000 tons per year diesel and gasoline hydrotreating unit by converting it into an aircraft fuel production facility with a capacity of 200,000 tons per year; this will be accompanied by a 200,000 tons per year raw material pretreatment unit. The main products will be aircraft fuel and bio-naphtha, with a small amount of gas being produced as a by-product.
On February 28, 2026, the Guangzhou Branch of Sinopec Corporation completed the registration for the 200,000 tons per year biojet fuel project. It is understood that the project is located at No. 239, Shihua Road, Wenchong Sub-district, Huangpu District, Guangzhou. The project involves constructing a new hydroprocessing unit for biojet fuel with a capacity of 200,000 tons per year (based on crude feedstock), using processed waste cooking oil (UCO) as raw material. The unit is expected to produce approximately 145,000 tons of biojet fuel and 22,000 tons of bio-naphtha annually. The total investment for the project is 751.01 million yuan, with completion scheduled by the end of 2028.