CATAGEN showcases modular SAF model to VINCI Airports executives in Belfast

CATAGEN on June 19 hosted 170 executives from VINCI Airports’ network at its Net Zero Campus in Belfast to show a modular sustainable aviation fuel model built around BIOHGEN and E-FUEL GEN. The Belfast-based company framed the system as a decentralized route to SAF production, with fuel assets placed closer to renewable power, sustainable feedstocks and airport demand.

ClimaHtech Green Flight, CATAGEN’s SAF business, says E-FUEL GEN is an electrically driven modular reactor that can make e-SAF from renewable hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide. When paired with BIOHGEN, CATAGEN says the same platform can also produce bio-SAF. BIOHGEN uses the company’s proprietary e-reactor technology to make biohydrogen from sustainable bio-organic sources, giving CATAGEN a pitch that extends beyond a single fuel pathway.

The Belfast demonstration came with a clear operating backdrop. VINCI Airports says SAF is already available at 18 airports across its network, which spans more than 70 airports in 14 countries. The operator also said its network handled more than 74 million passengers in the first quarter of 2026, a scale that keeps airport decarbonization tied to real fuel logistics rather than pilot-scale trials.

That is where CATAGEN is aiming its modular case. Conventional SAF projects often rely on centralized mega-plants, long development schedules and major infrastructure buildouts. CATAGEN’s argument is that prefabricated systems can be deployed faster and matched to local energy availability, which could suit airports and surrounding industrial sites where feedstock logistics or power supply are the limiting factors. The model also gives airports a way to consider fuel production closer to demand centers instead of depending entirely on long-haul supply chains.

The policy setting in the United Kingdom gives that discussion a hard deadline. The UK Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate entered into force in 2025, and government documents say it requires 2% SAF in UK jet fuel in 2025, rising to 10% by 2030 and 22% by 2040. UK materials say the mandate was first consulted on in July 2022, with details and a revenue certainty consultation published in April 2024.

VINCI Airports has already used SAF in its network, including at Saint-Nazaire Montoir Airport in France with TotalEnergies, and it said Salvador Bahia Airport became Brazil’s first airport to supply commercial flights with SAF in 2026. Belfast International Airport, which is 100% owned and operated by VINCI Airports, is led by chief executive Dan Owens, who took the role in March 2024. Those moves place the CATAGEN demo inside a broader airport operator strategy that is already testing SAF supply at multiple sites.