Google and McKinsey among buyers of e-SAF certificates from Infinium's 100,000-tonne US project; American Airlines to take physical fuel delivery

Google and McKinsey are among the buyers of e-SAF certificates from a planned production facility being developed by Infinium in the United States, according to the companies' arrangement. The facility is designed to produce 100,000 tonnes of green hydrogen-based fuel per year.

Under the structure, American Airlines will take physical delivery of the fuel produced at the facility, while the certificate holders — including Google and McKinsey — will claim the associated emissions abatement benefits through long-term contracts. Infinium's production process uses liquid fuel reactors that convert syngas directly into finished e-fuels.

This arrangement reflects a broader pattern in sustainable aviation fuel markets, where the physical molecule and its environmental attribute are sold separately. A buyer that never touches jet fuel, such as a technology or consulting firm, can still claim emissions reductions by purchasing the certificate tied to a batch of fuel that an airline physically burns.

This structure lets corporate buyers like Google and McKinsey fund higher-cost e-SAF production and count the abatement toward their own climate targets, while an airline such as American Airlines secures fuel supply without bearing the certificate's full cost premium. The model depends on long-term contracts to give producers like Infinium the revenue certainty needed to build capacity at scale.

What remains to be seen is how the facility's output, timeline, and contract volumes are verified and reported once production begins, and whether other airlines or corporate buyers adopt similar certificate-and-delivery splits for future e-SAF capacity.