TITAN next generation ethanol and the decarbonisation of our skies

Revised: Steve Walker 20.04.2025

TITAN: Next-Generation Ethanol and the Decarbonisation of Our Skies

As aviation and transport fuel regulations tighten across Europe, second-generation ethanol (2G EtOH) has emerged as a cornerstone in the EU’s clean fuel strategy. At the heart of this transition is TITAN, a bio-engineering platform that transforms forest waste into renewable fuel, replacing petroleum-based inputs with high-value, low-emission alternatives.

TITAN is not just a plant — it is a statement of intent. It reflects a deep commitment to energy sovereignty, local feedstock utilisation, and a truly circular economy. It also represents a strategic leap forward for Poland’s aviation sector, offering a domestic solution to one of Europe’s most urgent climate compliance challenges.

2G Ethanol: The Core of TITAN’s Mission

TITAN’s primary objective is the production of advanced, non-food-based 2G EtOH, sourced entirely from waste forest biomass. This includes residues left on the forest floor, non-virgin woody biomass, and materials historically destined for landfilling or low-grade combustion.

Using a proprietary Hydrogen Producer Gas (HPG) to Targeted Microbial Fermentation (TMF) process, TITAN extracts renewable carbon and hydrogen from biomass, converting it into 2G EtOH with near-zero refinery emissions and no fossil fuel input. The platform’s dual HPG island architecture ensures continuous and decentralised gas supply for both electricity/heat and fermentation feedstock.

This modular structure allows TITAN to function as a standalone, grid-independent, smoke-free, zero-coal facility, setting a new benchmark for carbon-negative industrial energy systems.

SAF Rollout and the Alcohol-to-Jet Pathway

The second phase of TITAN’s rollout will focus on producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) through the Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ) pathway. The AtJ process refines TITAN’s 2G ethanol into Jet-A1 compliant, drop-in aviation fuel, ready to blend at refuelling depots across Europe. The first ten TITAN installations produce enough 2G EtOH to supply an AtJ refinery producing Jet-A1 and Biodeisel

This development is perfectly aligned with the ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation, which mandates all EU airports begin blending sustainable aviation fuels starting at 2% in 2025, rising to 6% in 2030, 20% by 2035, and 28% by 2050. Airlines that do not comply must pay penalties.

TITAN’s SAF production will therefore not only enable Polish airlines to comply — it will allow them to lead. By producing SAF locally, Poland can secure its own fuel supply, reduce its carbon intensity per flight, and offer intercontinental connections from a net-zero baseline.

How Dark Hydrogen became the New Green

The “new green hydrogen” is “dark bio-hydrogen”, so called after the dark fermentation bio-manufacturing process which creates it green because its manufacture and existence are entirely organic, renewable and waterless. 

We choose to go to the moon JFK 1962 Moonshot Speech
60 years on from JFK moonshot speech

One small step ahead of carbon capture and storage CCS replacing it instead with capture and transformation CCT, thus taking the capture and recycling of waste carbon to the next level is a giant leap for mankind. 60 years on from JFK’s moonshot speech and on its anniversary Joe Biden announced the cure for cancer is the new moonshot and its through bio-technology transformation that will get us there.

TITAN and ASMARA incorporate two technologies on one platform, waste to hydrogen producer gas + microbial fermentation to manufacture fuel, chemical and material products. CCT is a well-proven process for recycling both the carbon at the smoke stack, in the waste we produce and in the waste we throw away as it is for the carbon we have already produced. We are presented with a truly value-added proposition because recycling the carbon we already have obviates the need to dig up more carbon. Through converting solid waste into producer’s gas and CCT emission technology to recycle carbon in the producer’s gas through, microbial fermentation, we can reproduce all of the products we currently manufacture from oil and gas, where the likes of transport fuels, plastics and fertilisers are produced with far less environmental impact. In manufacturing, this great array of products as an added bonus, large quantities of waterless green hydrogen is recovered as a byproduct.        

Dark bio-hydrogen presents a disruptive edge to the idea of hydrogen as an energy carrier because it does not burden our ever-depleting water supply, instead, hydrogen is recovered from changing the state of organic feedstock through a proprietary, bio-manufacturing process where carbon-rich waste biomass or bio-waste is transformed from solid state to a gaseous state and as a feedstock for fermentation.