Axens has signed an agreement to acquire Air Liquide’s Lurgi methanol-to-olefins technology portfolio, including its Methanol-to-Propylene (MTP) process, Biofuels Central reported. The planned addition would extend Axens’ sustainable aviation fuel offering to include a methanol-to-jet pathway through its Jetanol process chain. The announcement describes an acquisition agreement rather than a completed transfer of the technology portfolio.
The technologies covered by the deal convert methanol into olefins, which can undergo further processing to produce SAF and other products. Within that portfolio, Axens describes MTP as an established technology with a record of reliable operation at commercial scale. That operating record relates to the methanol-to-propylene technology; the report does not describe an operating commercial methanol-to-jet SAF plant associated with the agreement.
Axens’ existing Jetanol suite provides SAF production technologies using ethanol. Incorporating the Lurgi portfolio would add methanol as another starting point, complementing those ethanol-based solutions rather than replacing them. According to the announcement carried by Biofuels Central, the combination is intended to give customers an integrated technology offering across the methanol-to-jet production chain, from methanol conversion through to aviation fuel production.
Axens presents the expansion as a way to broaden customers’ feedstock options and support their SAF investment plans. The company says the wider choice of production routes could help customers improve project economics, secure supply chains and prepare investments for future requirements. These are the stated objectives of the portfolio expansion, rather than quantified outcomes from a particular project.
The report gives no acquisition price or completion timetable. It also provides no capacity figures, customer commitments or project locations for deployment of the added methanol-to-jet offering.