Metafuels, the Zurich-based sustainable aviation fuel startup, has secured a €1.92 million grant from the Dutch government to advance its flagship Rotterdam project toward construction.
The grant has been awarded to Metafuels Nederland B.V., the company’s Dutch subsidiary, through the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) under the TSE Industry Studies – Hydrogen & Green Chemistry programme, known as GroenvermogenNL. The funding will support front-end engineering and design (FEED), permitting and consents, and commercial development activities, all focused on reaching a final investment decision.
Earlier, Metafuels raised $24 million in funding led by UVC Partners, alongside Energy Impact Partners, Contrarian Ventures, RockCreek, Verve Ventures, and Fortescue Ventures. The capital is being deployed to scale its technology and expand its project pipeline.
In parallel, McDermott Netherlands has been awarded the FEED contract for the Turbe facility, moving the project closer to execution. The company has also installed a demonstration plant at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, which is now preparing to begin operations, and is advancing additional development activities in Denmark.
The science behind the fuel
Founded in 2021 by Leigh Hackett, Saurabh Kapoor, and Ulrich Koss, Metafuels is built around a methanol-to-jet pathway: a process that converts renewable methanol into conventional jet fuel that operates in existing aircraft without modification. This “drop-in” compatibility is one of the technology’s most commercially attractive features: airlines do not need to retrofit their fleets, redesign fuelling infrastructure, or retrain ground crews.
Where conventional sustainable aviation fuels have long been constrained by the limited supply of waste oils and agricultural feedstocks, Metafuels’ approach sidesteps those bottlenecks entirely. When the methanol feedstock is produced using renewable electricity, green hydrogen, and captured carbon dioxide, the resulting fuel can deliver lifecycle emissions up to 90% lower than fossil kerosene.
The company’s aerobrew process is engineered specifically for cost leadership, targeting high conversion efficiency to bring production economics down to a level where e-SAF can compete at scale. That cost question has long been the industry’s central obstacle, and it is precisely where Metafuels is betting.
Unlike Synkero, Arcadia eFuels, and Ineratec, Metafuels has an aerobrew process, which the company claims delivers superior conversion efficiency and lower production costs, precisely the margin that will determine which players survive the transition from pilot plant to profitable commercial operation.
Rotterdam as the launchpad
The project in question is Turbe, the first planned commercial deployment of Metafuels’ proprietary aerobrew technology. It will be located at the Evos terminal in the Port of Rotterdam, one of Europe’s most strategically positioned energy hubs, offering ready access to methanol infrastructure, multimodal logistics, and an industrial workforce already oriented toward energy transition.
The port has made low-carbon fuels a centrepiece of its long-term industrial strategy, and Turbe slots directly into that ambition. Metafuels is targeting production from 2030, timed to coincide with the introduction of e-SAF sub-mandates under ReFuelEU Aviation: the EU regulation that will force airlines to blend increasing quantities of synthetic fuel into their supply chains.
“Securing this support from RVO is a strong validation of both our technology and our approach to scaling e-SAF production, and the merits of the Turbe project. Rotterdam is one of Europe’s most important energy and industrial hubs and an ideal location for large-scale synthetic fuel projects,” says Kapoor.
