FEED Completed: What This Milestone Means for Lighthouse Green Fuels

July 14, 2026

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(Lighthouse Green Fuels) Lighthouse Green Fuels (LGF) has successfully completed Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for its Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) facility in Teesside, delivered in partnership with engineering contractor Worley.

For any major infrastructure project, FEED is one of the most significant stages in development, marking the point where a project moves into detailed engineering reality.

Completing FEED confirms the technical integration, engineering configuration and delivery strategy for what is expected to become one of the world's largest second-generation SAF facilities.

But what exactly is FEED? And why is it such an important milestone for the UK more broadly?

From concept to detailed design

Large industrial projects are developed in stages.

During Front-End Engineering Design, engineers take the chosen concept and develop it into a mature engineering design that can ultimately be built and operated. Every major component of the facility is analysed, integrated and costed through extensive engineering work.

For us, this has included comprehensive design work across feedstock handling, gasification, Fischer-Tropsch fuel synthesis, utilities, storage infrastructure and future integration with carbon capture and storage infrastructure.

The result is an engineering blueprint for the facility.

Why FEED matters

FEED allows project teams to validate that technologies will work together as intended and develop credible procurement and construction plans. Its completion demonstrates that the project has moved well beyond the conceptual stage and is now supported by thorough engineering and a clear pathway towards Final Investment Decision (FID).

FEED completion is clearly important from an engineering perspective, but it’s also significant in a much broader strategic context.

Today, the UK produces only a fraction of the jet fuel it consumes, relying heavily on imported supply. Recent disruption to global energy and shipping markets has highlighted how vulnerable critical fuel supply chains can become when they depend on international production and transport networks.

Aviation will continue to rely on liquid fuels for decades to come. While electric and hydrogen technologies are progressing, they are not expected to play a significant role in long-haul aviation in the foreseeable future.

That means the strategic question is no longer whether liquid fuels will be needed, but where those fuels will be produced.

Projects like Lighthouse Green Fuels provide part of the answer.

By producing SAF domestically from sustainably sourced biomass feedstocks, the project has the potential to strengthen UK fuel resilience, diversify supply chains and reduce long-term reliance on imported fuel.

In that sense, FEED completion represents another step towards establishing a new domestic fuel industry and restoring refinery-scale fuel production capability in the UK for the first time in generations.

Building one of the world's most advanced SAF facilities

Located at Seal Sands in Teesside, LGF is being developed as a fully integrated second-generation SAF facility.

Once operational, the project is expected to produce 180 million litres of Sustainable Aviation Fuel and 30 million litres of renewable naphtha annually from sustainably sourced biomass feedstocks, including forestry and agricultural residues.

The facility will utilise a commercially proven gasification Fischer-Tropsch pathway, a technology route widely recognised as one of the most credible options for large-scale advanced SAF production.

The project is also designed to integrate with Teesside's carbon capture and storage infrastructure, enabling the production of carbon-negative SAF and potentially delivering lifecycle greenhouse gas reductions of more than 200% compared with conventional jet fuel.

A major milestone for UK SAF

The UK has set ambitious targets through the SAF Mandate, recognising SAF as the most important decarbonisation pathway available to aviation in the near and medium term.

Delivering those targets requires projects capable of producing SAF at industrial scale.

Completion of FEED confirms that Lighthouse Green Fuels is progressing towards that goal. It establishes the engineering foundation for a project that is expected to become the UK's first new refinery development since the 1960s and one of the most advanced second-generation SAF facilities globally.

The milestone follows a series of recent developments across the project, including securing the Seal Sands site, progressing carbon capture integration, advancing feedstock agreements and continuing work towards SAF offtake arrangements.

The road ahead

Completion of FEED confirms that LGF is no longer simply a vision for the future of SAF. It is now a fully engineered project progressing towards delivery.

As the UK seeks to strengthen fuel security, support industrial growth and deliver its SAF ambitions, projects capable of operating at commercial scale will be critical.

FEED provides the engineering foundation for that next phase.

For us, it marks a defining project milestone - and for the UK, it is another step towards building a domestic SAF industry capable of supporting both aviation decarbonisation and long-term fuel resilience. READ MORE

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Lighthouse Green Fuels confirms land option agreement for multibillion sustainable aviation fuel facility (Lighthouse Green Fuels)

Excerpt from Lighthouse Green Fuels: Global project development, manufacturing and engineering group Alfanar has today announced that it has signed a land option agreement for its Lighthouse Green Fuels (LGF) Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) project in Seal Sands, Teesside.

The agreement secures the site for the development of the multibillion LGF facility, a world-leading second-generation SAF plant that will be one of the largest of its kind globally and is the most advanced in Europe. The project will also be UK’s first new refinery since the 1960s.

Located at Seal Sands on the mouth of the River Tees, the site will enable full end-to-end SAF production, from feedstock pre-treatment through to final fuel production and storage. Its proximity to key infrastructure and carbon capture and storage (CCS) networks, will support efficient, ultra-low carbon operations and future scalability.

Once operational, the facility will produce 180 million litres of SAF and 30 million litres of renewable naphtha per year from sustainably sourced biomass feedstocks, including forestry and agricultural residues.

With access to carbon capture and storage (CCS), the project can deliver carbon-negative fuel, reducing lifecycle emissions by over 200% compared to conventional jet fuel. Once operational, LGF could contribute around 46% of the total UK SAF Mandate on a greenhouse gas emissions basis, compared with around 20% without CCS, while also strengthening the UK’s long-term fuel resilience.

The project has now entered an advanced development phase, with Front End Engineering Design (FEED) completed at the end of May and all core technology licences secured. Planning and permitting continues to progress through the Development Consent Order (DCO) process ahead of a final application submission in the summer. This follows the recent announcement that LGF has been selected by Defra as a pilot project for the Lead Environmental Regulator programme, alongside Sizewell C, helping streamline environmental consenting for nationally significant infrastructure projects.

In parallel, the project has submitted its application for connection into the Teesside carbon capture and storage network, while commercial discussions continue with major biomass suppliers and SAF offtake partners.

To date, Alfanar has invested approximately £90 million into the project, with a further £100 million expected to be committed ahead of Final Investment Decision and financial close, targeted for the end of 2027.

Alfanar UK Country Head, Noaman Al Adhami, said:

“This marks another major milestone for Lighthouse Green Fuels as we advance towards financial close. The land option agreement not only anchors the project in Teesside, but gives us the platform to deliver one of the most advanced and ambitious sustainable aviation fuel facilities anywhere in the world.

At a time of growing fuel insecurity, this multibillion investment will strengthen the UK’s resilience to global oil price shocks and unlock new opportunities for growth, innovation and skilled jobs in the region.

We’re now firmly focused on reaching a Final Investment Decision at the end of next year, with the aim to start construction in 2028 and start producing its first fuel from 2031.”

Site MP Chris McDonald, who visited the LGF site, said:

“Lighthouse Green Fuels is the kind of project that tells you something important about where Teesside is heading. The scale is impressive, the ambition is clear, and it will be right at home in Billingham. A town with the industrial heritage, skilled workforce and know-how to deliver major projects of national importance.

This is a powerful vote of confidence in our region. A groundbreaking project, major investment and a new industry, all coming together on Teesside. It has the potential to change aviation for the better and to cement the UK, and Billingham in particular, as a leader in sustainable aviation fuel.” READ MORE