Haffner Energy’s SB-HEFA: Connecting Thermolysis Oil to HDO in a Biomass-to-Fuel Route
In September 2026, Haffner Energy announced SB-HEFA, or Solid Biomass to HEFA, adding a new liquid-fuel pathway to its existing thermolysis platform.
Haffner’s existing process already produces a condensable fraction containing oils and tars during biomass thermolysis. In the original architecture, this stream is sent to a reforming stage at around 1,000°C and converted into syngas, which Haffner calls Hypergas®. The company describes thermolysis at about 500°C followed by reforming, where tars, oils, and longer-chain molecules are converted into smaller molecules dominated by H₂, CO, CO₂, and CH₄.
SB-HEFA changes what happens to part of that thermolysis oil.
Instead of sending all of it to reforming, the oil is recovered upstream of the reformer, rapidly cooled and stabilized, filtered, and then sent to hydrodeoxygenation, or HDO. The resulting hydrocarbons can be directed toward renewable diesel and, with further upgrading and qualification, sustainable aviation fuel.
The important change is therefore not biomass-to-oil conversion by itself.
It is the addition of a liquid-fuel pathway to Haffner’s existing thermolysis–reforming platform.
There is also a clear industrial reason for this change.
If lower-cost residual solid biomass can be used while avoiding part of the reforming and syngas-based synthesis chain, the overall biomass-to-liquid process may potentially be shortened and its capital and energy requirements reduced.
1. The Bécancour Multi-Energy Hub Is Moving into an Industrial Project
Shortly after announcing SB-HEFA, Haffner disclosed one of the first industrial projects in which the liquid-fuel pathway could be demonstrated.
On September 28, 2026, Haffner Energy announced that it had received a €3.2 million firm order from project company INCAD for Quebec’s first Multi-Energy Hub in Bécancour.
The contract became effective on September 25 and includes six pieces of equipment that had already been manufactured, together with related engineering services. Delivery is scheduled before the end of 2026.
The main product from the Bécancour facility will be approximately 400 Nm³/h of renewable natural gas, or RNG, produced from residual biomass.
The facility will also produce biochar, while thermolysis oil will be used in demonstration campaigns for renewable diesel and, subsequently, SAF.
The project is currently targeted for commissioning in the second quarter of 2028.
The product structure of Bécancour is therefore best understood in two parts.
Current core products
Residual Biomass
→ RNG + Biochar
A new pathway is being added alongside them:
Thermolysis Oil
→ HDO
→ Renewable Diesel
→ Further Upgrading / Qualification
→ SAF
Haffner and Mundi Énergies describe Bécancour as the first of around twenty Multi-Energy Hubs they intend to develop progressively in Quebec.
Bécancour should therefore not yet be viewed primarily as a large commercial SAF plant.
Its significance is that Haffner’s existing gas-and-biochar platform is beginning to incorporate an industrial liquid-fuel demonstration pathway.
2. Before SB-HEFA, Haffner’s Core Platform Was Based on Thermolysis + Reforming
To understand what SB-HEFA changes, it is useful to first look clearly at Haffner’s existing process architecture.
Haffner’s core technology combines biomass thermolysis with subsequent reforming.
According to the company, biomass is thermolyzed at approximately 500°C, producing two major streams.
One is biochar, the solid carbon fraction.
The other is thermolysis gas containing both condensable and non-condensable components. The condensable fraction includes oils and tars.
In the original Haffner process, these oils and tars are not recovered as a separate liquid product.
Instead, they are sent to a reforming stage at approximately 1,000°C, where longer-chain molecules, oils, and tars are converted into smaller molecules dominated by H₂, CO, CO₂, and CH₄.
The combination of thermolysis and reforming produces the H₂-rich syngas that Haffner calls Hypergas®.
In simplified form, the existing architecture is:
Residual Biomass
→ Thermolysis, ~500°C
→ Biochar + Thermolysis Vapors
→ Reforming, ~1,000°C
→ H₂-rich Syngas, Hypergas®
Hypergas® can then be connected to several downstream product routes, including renewable hydrogen, methane, methanol, and potentially FT-based SAF.
One advantage of this architecture is that complex and heterogeneous biomass-derived molecules are converted into a simpler gaseous intermediate.
This creates a relatively standardized H₂/CO-based platform for downstream processing.
However, when the final target is a liquid hydrocarbon, the route also requires high-temperature reforming, syngas conditioning, and a downstream synthesis step to build hydrocarbons again.
SB-HEFA adds another downstream option to this existing architecture.
3. Why Add an Oil Route? The Main Driver Is Economics
The most important change in SB-HEFA is not the thermolysis reactor itself.
It is the downstream destination of thermolysis oil.
In Haffner’s existing route:
Thermolysis Oil
→ Reforming
→ Syngas
→ Downstream Synthesis
→ Hydrocarbon Fuel
In SB-HEFA:
Thermolysis Oil
→ Immediate Cooling / Stabilization
→ Filtration
→ HDO / Hydroprocessing
→ Renewable Diesel / SAF
Haffner explains that in its conventional syngas, hydrogen, methane, or methanol routes, thermolysis oil is immediately converted into non-condensable gas through reforming.
SB-HEFA removes that reforming step for the liquid fraction and instead recovers the oil for cooling, filtration, and hydrodeoxygenation.
The reason Haffner is pursuing this route is relatively clear from the company’s announcement.
The first driver is feedstock economics.
Haffner cites 2026 European UCO prices of approximately €1,000–1,200 per tonne, corresponding to roughly €100–120/MWh on a primary-energy basis.
By comparison, the residual solid biomass targeted by SB-HEFA is cited at approximately €10–30/MWh.
The company describes this as, on average, roughly one-fifth of the feedstock cost of conventional HEFA/HVO oil feedstocks.
The second driver is a shorter process chain.
A solid-biomass-to-liquid route based on Fischer–Tropsch synthesis can be simplified as:
Solid Biomass
→ Gasification / Reforming
→ Syngas Conditioning
→ FT or Methanol Synthesis
→ Upgrading
→ Liquid Fuel
SB-HEFA instead attempts to connect the liquid fraction already created during thermolysis directly to HDO, bypassing part of the gas-phase conversion and subsequent synthesis chain.
Based on its techno-economic model, Haffner estimates that an SB-HEFA facility could require approximately one-third of the CAPEX of a comparable solid-biomass-to-liquid chain based on FT or methanol synthesis.
The company also targets an approximately 50% reduction in the levelized production cost of renewable diesel and SAF relative to alternative pathways, combining lower-cost feedstock, a shorter industrial process chain, and improved energy efficiency.
These figures are Haffner techno-economic estimates and targets, not results from an operating commercial plant.
They nevertheless make the rationale for adding the thermolysis-oil route clear.
If lower-cost solid biomass can be used and a liquid already produced during thermolysis can be upgraded directly, part of the process chain may be eliminated, creating opportunities to reduce CAPEX and energy consumption.
That is the economic proposition behind SB-HEFA.
4. Why Is It Called HEFA If the Feedstock Is Solid Biomass?
The name SB-HEFA raises an obvious question.
Conventional HEFA-SPK typically starts with lipid feedstocks such as vegetable oils, animal fats, and used cooking oils.
ASTM D7566 Annex A2, as summarized by ICAO, lists vegetable oils, animal fats, and used cooking oils as possible feedstocks for the conventional HEFA pathway. The current maximum blending ratio is 50%.
Conventional HEFA chemistry can be simplified as:
Triglycerides / FFAs / Esters
→ Hydrogenation / Deoxygenation
→ Long-chain Paraffins
→ Hydroisomerization / Hydrocracking
→ Jet-range Hydrocarbons
SB-HEFA starts from a different feed.
Its original feedstock is lignocellulosic solid biomass, and the intermediate entering HDO is not a triglyceride or free fatty acid.
It is a thermolysis-derived oxygenated oil.
Haffner’s use of the term HEFA therefore appears to refer primarily to the downstream hydroprocessing technology.
The company states that, after filtration, the thermolysis oil will be hydrodeoxygenated using technologies already industrialized in the HEFA industry.
This does not mean that SB-HEFA SAF is currently the same approved pathway as conventional ASTM HEFA-SPK.
Haffner plans to commission its first complete industrial demonstrator in 2027/2028 and pursue a separate ASTM qualification process for SAF.
At this stage, SB-HEFA is therefore best understood as Haffner’s new biomass-to-liquid pathway connecting solid-biomass thermolysis with HEFA/HVO-type hydroprocessing.
5. Haffner’s Key Claim: A Thermolysis Oil Better Suited to HDO
Recovering thermolysis oil before the reformer does not automatically make it a good HDO feed.
This is where another important part of Haffner’s SB-HEFA concept appears: thermolysis-oil quality.
Haffner says that it combines torrefied biomass with a very short thermolysis residence time to produce an intermediate better suited to hydrotreatment.
The company specifically emphasizes:
lower oxygen content,
lower acidity,
and very low residual solid-particle content.
Among these properties, oxygen content is directly relevant to HDO.
Oxygen remaining in biomass-derived oil must be removed during downstream hydroprocessing. In an HDO pathway, hydrogen is consumed as oxygen is removed mainly in the form of water.
A lower oxygen content can therefore reduce the downstream deoxygenation burden and potentially lower hydrogen demand.
Lower acidity and lower solids are also directionally favorable for liquid handling, filtration, and catalyst protection.
In simplified form, the logic is:
Torrefaction + Thermolysis
→ Lower-Oxygen / Lower-Acidity Oil
→ Potentially Lower HDO Burden
→ Renewable Diesel / SAF Upgrading
Independent literature supports the general direction that torrefaction can reduce the oxygen content of subsequent pyrolysis oil and increase its heating value.
Louwes and co-workers, for example, reported that when hardwood pellets were torrefied at 265°C for 45 minutes before fast pyrolysis, the oxygen mass fraction of the bio-oil decreased from 45.7 wt% to 37.2 wt%, while the higher heating value increased from 19.1 to 23.1 MJ/kg.
The oil yield, however, moved in the opposite direction.
It declined from 44 wt% for untreated biomass to an average of approximately 31 wt% for the torrefied feed.
This illustrates an important trade-off:
The study does not validate the performance of Haffner’s thermolysis oil itself.
But it provides a useful independent example of the broader trade-off between pretreatment, liquid yield, and oil quality.
For SB-HEFA, the more meaningful performance chain is therefore not simply raw oil yield.
It is:
Raw Thermolysis-Oil Yield
→ Oxygen / Acidity / Solids
→ Conditioning Recovery
→ H₂ Consumption
→ HDO Performance
→ Finished Hydrocarbon Yield
As demonstration data become available, it should become possible to understand more quantitatively how Haffner’s claimed lower oxygen, lower acidity, and low solids affect hydrogen consumption and final hydrocarbon recovery.
6. The Technical Challenge: Using Thermolysis Oil as an HDO Feed
Even if Haffner uses hydroprocessing technologies already developed in the HEFA industry, thermolysis oil and conventional HEFA feedstocks do not have the same chemistry.
Conventional lipid feeds are dominated by triglycerides and free fatty acids.
Lignocellulosic pyrolysis or thermolysis oils, by contrast, can contain phenolics, acids, aldehydes, ketones, furans, and many other oxygenated compounds.
This feed complexity matters in HDO.
Recent reviews of pyrolysis bio-oil hydrodeoxygenation identify carbonaceous deposition, sintering, and catalyst poisoning among the major catalyst-deactivation mechanisms.
Polymerization of unsaturated species and polycondensation of oxygenated compounds can contribute to coke formation and pore blockage.
Nitrogen-, sulfur-, and phosphorus-containing compounds, as well as water, can also affect catalyst stability.
Other reviews similarly identify catalyst lifetime as an important challenge in the industrialization of bio-oil HDO, with water, sulfur, nitrogen, chlorine, metals, and coke formation among the factors affecting long-term operation.
This is why Haffner’s emphasis on lower oxygen, lower acidity, and low residual solids matters beyond simple analytical quality.
If these properties are maintained in practice, they may potentially translate into:
Oxygen ↓
→ lower deoxygenation burden
Solids ↓
→ easier filtration and catalyst protection
Better control of reactive components
→ potentially lower coking and fouling tendency
The important question is therefore not simply whether the oil looks better on a laboratory specification sheet.
It is:
How reliably can the oil be processed in a continuous HDO unit?
As operating data become available, H₂ consumption and hydrocarbon recovery will be important, but so will catalyst activity, run length, coke formation, fouling, and pressure-drop evolution.
These parameters will help show whether thermolysis oil can serve as a practical industrial hydroprocessing feed.
7. Extending Feed Flexibility to the Liquid Route Requires Impurity Management
Haffner presents broad feed flexibility as one of the strengths of its thermolysis platform.
This can be an important advantage for feedstock availability and economics.
The liquid-fuel route, however, adds another requirement.
A broad range of biomass feedstocks must still produce an intermediate oil that downstream HDO can accept.
Residual biomass varies not only in organic composition but also in moisture, ash, and inorganic or heteroatom content such as K, Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, N, and S.
These differences can affect not only the distribution of gas, liquid, and char during thermolysis but also the quality of each stream.
For the liquid route, impurity carryover is particularly relevant.
If part of the inorganic or heteroatom content of the original biomass moves into the condensable liquid, downstream filtration and catalyst-protection requirements can change.
Variations in cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content can also change the distribution of oxygenated compounds and the reactivity of the resulting oil.
This means that:
Wide Feed Flexibility
and
Consistent HDO Feed Quality
should be considered separately.
In commercial operation, the relevant chain may look like:
Feed Variability
→ Thermolysis Response
→ Oil Quality / Impurity Carryover
→ Conditioning Requirement
→ HDO Catalyst Exposure
→ Run Length / Product Yield
As experience accumulates at Bécancour and future SB-HEFA demonstrations, it should become easier to understand how far Haffner’s feed flexibility can be extended into the liquid-fuel route.
From this perspective, filtration and stabilization are not merely auxiliary steps.
They are important interfaces connecting thermolysis with HDO.
8. The Core SB-HEFA Trade-Off: A Shorter Process Chain Versus HDO Feed Complexity
Taken together, the process direction chosen by SB-HEFA is relatively clear.
Haffner’s existing thermolysis–reforming route converts complex thermolysis-derived molecules at around 1,000°C into a simpler gaseous intermediate dominated by H₂ and CO.
That route requires high-temperature reforming and gas cleanup, and when liquid fuels are the final target, additional downstream synthesis is required.
SB-HEFA instead recovers thermolysis oil and directs it to HDO.
This may shorten the overall process chain, but it also means that downstream hydroprocessing must deal more directly with the chemical complexity and impurities of a biomass-derived liquid.
There is no need to assume that one route is universally superior.
SB-HEFA represents a process architecture in which a shorter conversion chain is exchanged for greater importance of thermolysis-oil quality and downstream HDO performance.
Haffner expects this shorter route, combined with lower-cost feedstock, to create advantages in CAPEX and energy efficiency.
Future demonstrations will show how well those economic advantages are maintained under real feed variability and continuous HDO operation.
Conclusion — SB-HEFA Adds a Liquid-Fuel Route to Haffner’s Existing Platform
Haffner Energy’s existing thermolysis platform has been developed around producing biochar and thermolysis gases, with condensable oils and tars subsequently converted through reforming at around 1,000°C into Hypergas®.
SB-HEFA adds another downstream route to this architecture.
Thermolysis oil is recovered before reforming, rapidly cooled and stabilized, filtered, and then sent to HDO for conversion into renewable diesel and, eventually, SAF.
The most direct advantage Haffner expects from this route is economic.
Residual solid biomass may be available at substantially lower cost than conventional HEFA/HVO oil feedstocks, while avoiding conversion of the liquid fraction all the way to syngas can reduce part of the reforming and subsequent synthesis chain.
Based on this architecture, Haffner estimates that SB-HEFA CAPEX could be approximately one-third of that of a comparable solid-biomass FT or methanol-synthesis chain, while targeting an approximately 50% reduction in the levelized production cost of renewable diesel and SAF.
These are company techno-economic estimates rather than demonstrated commercial operating results.
The technical performance of the route will depend heavily on thermolysis-oil quality.
Haffner identifies the use of torrefied biomass and short thermolysis residence time to produce an oil with lower oxygen, lower acidity, and very low residual solids as an important feature of SB-HEFA.
If these properties translate into lower H₂ consumption, higher hydrocarbon recovery, and stable catalyst operation at industrial scale, the economic advantages of the shorter process chain will become more tangible.
If feedstock variability significantly changes thermolysis-oil composition and impurity levels, conditioning and HDO operation will become increasingly important to overall process performance.
For that reason, some of the most useful parameters to watch as SB-HEFA develops are:
Residual Biomass Cost
→ Thermolysis-Oil Yield & Quality
→ Conditioning Recovery
→ H₂ Consumption
→ Catalyst Run Length
→ Finished Renewable Diesel / SAF Yield
Bécancour is where this new route begins to connect with Haffner’s industrial platform.
In September 2026, Haffner announced a €3.2 million firm order associated with the Bécancour Multi-Energy Hub. The facility is designed to produce approximately 400 Nm³/h of RNG and biochar while also supporting thermolysis-oil demonstration campaigns for renewable diesel and aviation fuel.
The significance of SB-HEFA is therefore relatively straightforward.
Haffner is adding a new product pathway to its existing thermolysis–reforming platform by recovering part of the thermolysis oil as a separate liquid intermediate and connecting it to HDO for renewable diesel and SAF production.
How far this route can improve biomass-to-liquid economics will depend increasingly on thermolysis-oil quality, conditioning recovery, hydrogen consumption, catalyst stability, and long-duration operation.
Quantitative and Technical Sources
1. Haffner Energy — SB-HEFA Announcement, September 22, 2026
Haffner explains that its thermolysis technology already produces oil, but in existing syngas, hydrogen, methane, and methanol routes the oil is converted into non-condensable gas through reforming.
SB-HEFA bypasses reforming for the liquid fraction and instead directs the oil through cooling, stabilization, filtration, and HDO.
Key economic figures cited by the company include:
UCO: approximately €1,000–1,200/t
UCO on a primary-energy basis: approximately €100–120/MWh
Residual solid biomass: approximately €10–30/MWh
SB-HEFA CAPEX estimate: approximately one-third of a comparable solid-biomass FT/methanol chain
Renewable diesel/SAF levelized-cost target: approximately 50% lower than alternative pathways
These figures are Haffner feedstock benchmarks and techno-economic estimates or targets.
2. Haffner Energy — Bécancour Multi-Energy Hub, September 28, 2026
Key announced figures include:
Firm order: €3.2 million
Already-manufactured equipment: 6 units
Main RNG capacity: approximately 400 Nm³/h
Commissioning target: Q2 2028
RNG and biochar production
Demonstration of renewable diesel and, subsequently, SAF using thermolysis oil
3. Haffner Energy — Existing Thermolysis / Reforming Platform
Haffner describes:
Thermolysis at approximately 500°C
Production of biochar plus condensable and non-condensable gas
Condensable species including oils and tars
Reforming at approximately 1,000°C
Reforming products dominated by H₂, CO, CO₂, and CH₄
Hypergas® production through combined thermolysis and reforming
4. ICAO — Conventional HEFA-SPK
ASTM D7566 Annex A2 HEFA-SPK includes possible feedstocks such as vegetable oils, animal fats, and used cooking oils.
The current maximum blending ratio is 50%.
5. Louwes et al., Biomass and Bioenergy 105 (2017), 116–126
Fast pyrolysis after torrefaction of hardwood pellets showed:
Oxygen: 45.7 → 37.2 wt%
HHV: 19.1 → 23.1 MJ/kg
Oil yield: 44 → approximately 31 wt%
This provides an independent example of the trade-off between torrefaction, liquid yield, and oil quality.
6. Pyrolysis Bio-Oil HDO Literature
Recent reviews identify coke or carbonaceous deposition, sintering, and poisoning among major catalyst-deactivation mechanisms in bio-oil HDO.
Reactive oxygenates, N-, S-, and P-containing compounds, water, metals, and other contaminants may affect catalyst stability and long-duration operation.
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