$3B bet: Mubadala-Backed Firm Works on Jet Fuel from Tropical Fruit

August 07, 2026

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(Daily Sabah) Backed by Emirati Mubadala Capital, a Brazil-based venture is working on what could be one of the new and rare examples of fruits providing power for commercial aircraft. In Brazil’s Minas Gerais state north of Sao Paulo, more than 200 researchers are racing to develop and commercialize an oil-rich fruit so that it can one day power jetliners, according to an exclusive report by Bloomberg News, published on Tuesday.

Agronomists, biotechnicians and automation experts are the brains behind a $3 billion project to plant the little-known macauba palm tree across as many as 144,000 hectares (356,000 acres) of land, an area slightly larger than the city of Los Angeles and then harvest it for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the report suggests.

Once the first trees planted start bearing fruit, likely in 2030, energy and biofuels company Acelen Renovaveis plans to begin processing macauba oil at a biorefinery it’s building in another part of Brazil.

Acelen Renovaveis, which is fully owned by Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Capital, hopes to solidify Brazil’s role as one of the world’s top producers of biofuels and a leading supplier of clean jet fuel by industrializing the exotic fruit.

The company says its biorefinery under construction in Bahia state could eventually produce 20,000 barrels of SAF a day. That would translate to a big jump in worldwide output, which in 2025 was 41,000 barrels a day.

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'Fruit of the future'

Macauba is indigenous to South America and is naturally adapted to the semi-arid regions where Acelen Renovaveis is planting its trees.

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The trees in Minas Gerais will grow on degraded pasture so they don’t compete with food production. READ MORE

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Excerpt from Bloomberg/Yahoo! Finance: Macauba farming doesn't come without challenges. The palm trees only have one harvest a year, and their thorn-ridden trunks and leaves hamper collection. Harvesting the fruit will be more difficult to mechanize than reaping soybeans or sugarcane, Brazil's two main sources of biofuels, and will rely more on human labor.

Acelen Renováveis has developed fruit separation and oil extraction equipment at the Minas Gerais Agripark research site. The company plans to replicate these at its macauba plantations, so it can ship oil instead of fruit and cut logistics costs.

"You basically need to beat the economics of soybeans and sugarcane," said Thiago Sinzato, a senior bioenergy analyst at Rystad Energy. "If they can manage that, it's an incredible project."

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Jatropha, an oilseed-bearing shrub once hailed as a miracle crop, highlights the risks of using exotic plants to produce biofuels at scale. More than 250,000 hectares were planted with it in the late 2000s, mostly in China, but it's unclear how much of that land is still productive and few additional plantations have been announced, according to an April report by BloombergNEF.

"Weak plant-breeding programs resulted in highly variable yields, undermining project economics and leading to widespread project failure," the report's authors wrote.

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The refinery can also shift to making renewable diesel, which has a larger and more mature market than SAF.

The macauba project is driven in part by Europe's mandate to increase the use of SAF, a policy expected to create demand that far exceeds today's supplies of used cooking oil and animal fats. The Brazilian market is set to grow as well.

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The company needs to secure large areas of farmland, a complex task in Brazil, where fragmented ownership, contested land titles and overlapping claims from traditional and local communities can complicate acquisitions.

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It's also waiting for the EU to classify macauba as a non-food feedstock.

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The trees can grow to more than 50 feet and live for a century.

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The white kernel at the center of the fruit produces a separate type of oil that is too valuable to burn in engines and will be used for cosmetics.

Acelen Renováveis is collaborating with universities and consultancies to genetically modify the palm tree so that it doesn't grow as tall, produces bigger fruits with more oil and without the five-inch thorns. READ MORE

Excerpt from Business Insider Africa:

This move threatens conventional jet fuel exporters like Nigeria's Dangote Refinery.
However, the macauba tree’s adaptability to West African climates presents Dangote with a major opportunity to enter the SAF market.

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The challenge

Massive investments in the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) could disrupt traditional markets.

As airlines face increasing pressure to lower their carbon emission, the demand for conventional jet fuel like the surplus currently exported by Dangote will likely decline in favor of greener alternatives like macauba-based fuel.

The good news

The aforementioned challenge also serves as a massive opportunity for expansion.

The macauba tree thrives in tropical and semi-arid climates, which are identical to the environment in West Africa.

Historically, crops that succeed in Brazil, such as cocoa, have also flourished in West Africa.

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Given that the Dangote Group already has a deep footprint in tropical regions and massive refining expertise, this technology could be imported to create a billion-dollar SAF industry in Africa.

By embracing this green revolution, Dangote could transform a potential market threat into his next multi-billion-dollar business expansion. READ MORE