A Visit from St. Nicholas: The UK Grants $99M to Five Commercial-Scale SAF Projects, Just in Time for Christmas

December 23, 2022

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... The UK took a giant leap towards net zero carbon emissions and helping its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry to take flight as government awarded 5 projects a share of the $198M Advanced Fuels Fund. $82M in all. The 5 projects alone will produce over 300,000 tonnes of SAF a year – enough to fly to the moon and back an estimated 60 times. The successful projects will also slash CO2 emissions by an average of 200,000 tonnes each year once fully up and running – the equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the road.

The projects

alfanar Energy Ltd (Lighthouse Green Fuels)

Based in the Industrial Cluster at Teesside, the project is developing a commercial scale plant that uses gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert black bin bag waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The plant is expected to be operational in 2028 and produce 86.6 kt/y of SAF when at full operational capacity. Award: £11,001,000

Fulcrum BioEnergy Ltd (NorthPoint)

Based in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, the project is developing a commercial scale plant that uses gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert black bin bag waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The plant is expected to be operational in 2027 and produce 83.7kt/y of SAF when at full operational capacity. Award: £16,764,000

Lanzatech UK Ltd (DRAGON)

Based in Port Talbot, South Wales, the project is developing a commercial scale plant that converts steel mill off-gases into ethanol and then uses alcohol-to-jet technology to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The plant is expected to be operational in 2026 and produce 79kt/y of SAF when at full operational capacity. Award: £24,960,843

Velocys plc (Altalto)

Based in Immingham, Lincolnshire, the project is developing a commercial scale plant that uses gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert black bin bag waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The plant is expected to be operational in 2028 and produce 37.4kt/y of SAF when at full operational capacity. Award: £27,000,000

Velocys plc (e-Alto)

This project is developing a large demonstration plant that uses power-to-liquid technology to convert carbon dioxide from a fossil gas-powered electricity plant and hydrogen made from renewable electricity into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Award: £2,523,094

The Advanced Fuel Fund backstory

Launched alongside the Jet Zero strategy in July 2022, the Advanced Fuel Fund is designed to support the UK’s vision to be a world leader in sustainable aviation fuel by accelerating the development of SAF production plants, helping the government to achieve its aim of having at least 5 commercial SAF plants under construction in the UK by 2025.

More aviation decarb help

Alongside the news, the government is also announcing a further £1.2 million for the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure (ZEFI) project to help develop key airport infrastructure, such as hydrogen re-fuelling technology, for zero emissions aircraft. Launched in 2021 with £3 million, this additional £1.2 million extends the project for another year to support airports prepare to handle new forms of aircraft.

Meanwhile, the UK is also partnering with Kenya to help at least 5 East African countries implement the UN’s global carbon offsetting scheme for aviation, CORSIA. Under the scheme, airlines must purchase offsets to compensate for this growth, such as funding carbon-reducing technologies and initiatives in other sectors. This includes activities such as switching to renewable energy sources, capturing waste gases and avoiding deforestation. READ MORE

LanzaTech’s Waste Gas-to-SAF Facility receives £25M Grant from UK Department for Transport Advanced Fuels Fund -- World’s first commercial-scale facility to convert waste gases into sustainable aviation fuel expected to produce 102 million litres per year (LanzaTech/Business Wire)

UK ADVANCED FUELS FUND GRANTS £82M TO FIVE SAF PROJECTS (SAF Investor)

Lift off for projects fuelling jet liners with bin liners -- The government has awarded funding to companies turning waste into jet fuel. (U.K.Department for Transport and The Rt Hon Mark Harper MP)

Velocys receives 2 grants from UK government (Biomass Magazine)

Fulcrum BioEnergy's UK SAF project awarded $20 million (Fulcrum BioEnergy/SAF Magazine)

Technip Energies announces the award of a contract for the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) phase of LanzaTech’s DRAGON Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Project based on LanzaJet Alcohol to Jet (ATJ) Technology, on track to be one of the first commercial SAF facilities in the UK. (Technip Energies)

Fluor Awarded Front-End Engineering and Design Contract for LanzaTech Sustainable Aviation Fuel Facility -- Project paves the way to support low-emission flights in the UK (Fluor Corporation)

Excerpt from LanzaTech/Business Wire: The feedstock for the planned facility would be waste gases, including potentially from Tata Steel’s adjacent steelworks in Port Talbot. These would be transformed via LanzaTech’s gas fermentation platform to make ethanol as a feedstock for the ATJ facility. LanzaTech have selected Fluor Corporation, a leading global engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm, to provide Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) services for this part of the project. “With more than 110 years in the industry, Fluor brings world class front-end engineering and EPC firm experience to assist LanzaTech in deploying its technology,” said Jason Kraynek, president, Production & Fuels, Fluor Corporation.

In a second step the ethanol would be turned into SAF using the LanzaJet™ Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) process, which incorporates Technip Energies ‘ethanol to ethylene' Hummingbird™ technology. This would be the world’s first commercial scale integration of Gas Fermentation (GF) and ATJ to produce SAF with GHG reductions expected to be greater than 70% relative to conventional jet fuel. READ MORE