Hazer eyes low-carbon liquid fuel projects with Continual Renewable Ventures

Hazer Group Ltd and Continual Renewable Ventures on May 19 signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to assess low-carbon liquid fuel opportunities in Australia, with sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel at the center of the work. The deal gives Hazer its first step into the country’s clean-fuels market and shows how hydrogen technology companies are moving downstream into projects that need both hydrogen and liquid-fuels economics to line up.

The collaboration is structured as an initial two-year technical study, with any future investment decisions to be covered by separate binding agreements. Hazer said its hydrogen and graphite process operates without direct carbon dioxide emissions during hydrogen production, a feature that could matter in SAF and renewable diesel pathways where hydrogen is part of the production chain. For Hazer, the MOU reads less like a final project sanction than a bid to position its technology as an enabling platform for low-carbon liquids.

Continual Renewable Ventures brings a fuel-development angle of its own. The company says it holds the exclusive Australian and New Zealand license for HEFA technology from XCF Global, a detail that matters as domestic producers weigh whether to build local conversion capacity or keep sending feedstocks offshore. The partnership also points to Australia’s canola and other agricultural feedstocks, with the broader logic that some volumes now exported could instead support domestic SAF output if the project stack comes together.

The policy backdrop is moving in the same direction. The Australian Government has committed A$1.1 billion to a ten-year Cleaner Fuels Program to stimulate onshore production of low-carbon liquid fuels, including renewable diesel and SAF, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has already committed A$30 million to support domestic SAF development from agricultural feedstocks. Canberra says liquid fuels still account for more than half of final energy demand, while the International Energy Agency puts aviation at 2.5% of global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2023, a figure that keeps SAF high on the decarbonization agenda.

Kwinana gives the deal a practical landing zone. BP Refinery (Kwinana) Pty Ltd has already proposed a renewable diesel and SAF project at an existing refinery site there, and Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority recommended approval for the project in January 2024. That precedent matters for Hazer and Continual Renewable Ventures, because it suggests the region already has the industrial footprint, port access and permitting context needed for a renewable-fuels buildout. Hazer chief executive Glenn Corrie and CRV founder and managing director Renzo Petersen are both framing the move around domestic fuel security, refining capability and the shift from raw-material exports to higher-value production.