Global low-carbon policies keep rolling out, and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) has spawned a massive green engineering market worth hundreds of billions. Conventional fossil refining businesses have entered a structural contraction cycle. Refineries across many European regions operate below break-even utilization rates, while overseas EPC orders for traditional oil refining keep shrinking. Carbon taxes and mandatory emission reduction targets force the industry to restructure its development logic.
Leveraging its full-spectrum capabilities in process integration and full-chain engineering construction, Sinopec Engineering has stepped out of the conventional refinery construction track to deploy emerging sectors including biofuels, green hydrogen and carbon capture.
China’s Zhenhai Refining & Chemical has commissioned a 100,000-ton HEFA bio-SAF facility, which has obtained multiple international certifications including civil aviation airworthiness approval, RSB and ISCC CORSIA, laying solid technical foundations for overseas project delivery.
Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) shows global SAF output hit only 1.9 million tons in 2025. Demand will surge to 18 million tons by 2030, and biofuels will account for 65% of aviation carbon emissions cuts by 2050. The massive supply-demand gap generates tremendous growth opportunities for green engineering projects.
On June 16, during the 5th Tashkent International Investment Forum, Sinopec Engineering signed a general contracting agreement for a large-scale biofuel plant with Uzbekistan’s Joint Biofuel Company. The project, located in the Navoi Free Economic Zone, carries a total investment of approximately USD 6.1 billion (CNY 41.474 billion).
Uzbekistan produces around 5 million tons of agricultural and forestry waste such as cotton stalks and fruit tree branches annually, most of which were previously incinerated on-site. Abundant, low-cost biomass feedstock creates inherent raw material advantages for the complex.
As Central Asia’s first integrated bio-SAF complex, the facility integrates agricultural waste processing, photovoltaic green hydrogen production and supporting energy storage systems to mass-produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel, electro-synthetic aviation fuel and green diesel.
Ningbo Engineering under Sinopec undertakes the full scope of front-end engineering design (FEED), detailed engineering, full-system integration and new energy supporting infrastructure. The project accumulates complete engineering expertise covering biomass conversion, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and international carbon footprint certification through on-site implementation.
Benefiting from Tashkent’s position as Central Asia’s aviation hub, the complex’s SAF output will supply local airlines while exporting premium-priced volumes to Europe. It aligns with the EU’s ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation, which mandates year-on-year rising SAF blending ratios, and supports Uzbekistan’s industrial upgrade by converting low-value agricultural residues into high-value green fuels.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel is not an isolated niche sector. Together with green ammonia, green methanol and biodiesel, it forms a trillion-level industrial cluster of green liquid fuels, with a long-term total market size ranging from trillions of RMB to trillions of US dollars.
Traditional refining EPC order volumes are historically driven by crude oil prices and refinery expansion cycles. Moving forward, national carbon constraint policies and green fuel demand will become the core market growth drivers.
While the conventional oil refining EPC market gradually contracts, the green fuel engineering sector expands at a rapid pace. Global SAF demand will exceed 350 million tons by 2050, generating a green engineering market worth trillions.
Core process integration expertise developed for refining engineering is highly transferable across green energy tracks. First-mover enterprises can build proprietary technologies, industry standards and project experience via real-world project delivery, securing dominant market influence in the global green engineering space.
The launch of Uzbekistan’s large-scale biofuel complex marks the entry of green liquid fuels into large-scale industrialized deployment, standing as a landmark milestone for Chinese refining and petrochemical engineering firms’ overseas low-carbon transformation.
