Brazil’s $3 billion investment in macauba palm to produce a plant-based jet fuel, is set to put Dangote’s aviation fuel ambitions to new test.
The project, called green fuel or Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), significantly challenges the global aviation industry as the investment prepares to turn a native Brazilian fruit, the macauba palm, into a high-performance jet fuel.
The $385 billion Mubadala, UAE’s sovereign fund is funding the massive fruit-based jet fuel project, potentially bringing both good and bad news for Dangote refinery’s aviation fuel current market dominance.
Mubadala Investment Company, one of the world’s most powerful sovereign investment groups, aims to replace traditional petroleum-based fuels with a sustainable, plant-based alternative that is set to redefine international flights.
This ambitious venture is driven by Acelen Renováveis, a company fully owned by Mubadala Capital, which also serves as the asset management branch of the Mubadala Investment Company, a sovereign investor managed by the government of Abu Dhabi.
Mubadala is seen as a global titan in the sovereign investment sector. It oversees a massive portfolio valued at $385 billion.
It has operations in 80 countries across six continents. The group invests in diverse sectors to ensure long-term wealth for future generations.
Nigeria’s Dangote refinery has been enjoying high global aviation fuel market stake, due to Russia’s sales termination notice in April, which had offered Dangote refinery a rare six-month sales window.
This development moved Nigeria to overtake the U.S. as Europe’s top jet fuel supplier with 466,000-tonne June exports from Africa’s largest refinery.
According to Yahoo Finance, quoting the Brazil macauba project’s director of agribusiness, Victor Barra, he described the plant’s unique efficiency while standing among rows of seedlings.
“It’s literally a power plant, an energy plant,” Barra said.
The scale of the project is immense, with plans to cultivate some 144,000 hectares of land, a massive area of land larger than the city of Los Angeles, Yahoo Finance said.
This macauba palm investment by Brazil to produce perhaps the world’s first plant-based jet fuel, also called Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) that could revolutionise global aviation fuel sector.
Research scientists say macauba palm, which is indigenous to South America, outperforms traditional crops like soybeans in oil yield, making it a breakthrough in green energy for aviation.
Macauba palm is a hardy, oil-rich tree indigenous to South America.
Currently, over 200 experts, ranging from agronomists to automation engineers, are working to move the plant from the wild in the region into large-scale commercial production.
Agronomists and automation engineers say the macauba tree is a breakthrough in green energy because it can produce seven to 10 times more oil per hectare than soybeans.
By 2030, a specialised biorefinery in Bahia, Brazil, is projected to produce 20,000 barrels of Sustainable Aviation Fuel daily, which substantially increases the global supply of clean energy.
This move potentially threatens conventional jet fuel exporters like Nigeria’s Dangote refinery.
However, scientists offer that the macauba tree could also be adaptable to West African climates. If proven right, then it will present Dangote refinery with a key opportunity to also enter the SAF market.
This development will further boost the Africa-to-Asia world’s fastest-growing private jet corridor, which went up 42 percent in 2025.
The Mubadala SAF challenge:
Indeed, Mubadala Investment’s entry into the SAF market indicates a serious global commitment to transitioning away from the traditional fossil fuels. Industry watchers say massive investments in the development of SAF could disrupt traditional markets.
Airlines are facing increasing pressure to lower their carbon emissions. Hence, with the coming of SAF, the demand for conventional jet fuel such as the supply surplus currently exported by Dangote will eventually decline in favour of greener alternatives like macauba-based fuel.
However, there is good news. The aforementioned challenge also provides a great opportunity for expansion. The macauba tree is believed to thrive in tropical and semi-arid climates, which are identical to the West Africa’s environment.
Historically, crops that succeed in South American countries like Brazil, such as cocoa, have also flourished in West Africa.
For example, today, the West Africa region produces 70 percent of the world’s cocoa, a plant that originates from South America, growing naturally in the tropical Amazon rainforest. But the crop thrives so much in West Africa to the level that the region has overtaken South America.
Energy analysts say, given Dangote Group’s existing deep footprint in tropical regions and massive refining expertise, the macauba fruit-based fuel technology could also be imported to create a billion-dollar SAF industry in Africa.
Experts say if Dangote refinery embraces the macauba green fuel revolution, it could switch a potential market threat into its next multi-billion-dollar business expansion.
