The University of Sheffield in the UK has become a key partner in two new programmes supporting the production of sustainable aviation fuel from air-captured carbon dioxide. A mobile Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant developed by London-based Mission Zero Technologies (MZT) has been acquired by the university’s Transitional Energy Research Centre (TERC) to help validate CO2-based SAF ahead of certification. The plant, which has just been activated by MZT, is housed in a six-metre shipping container, enabling its transportation to and use in any location. Another UK enterprise, renewable fuels producer Zero Petroleum, recently announced partnerships with companies including Boeing to help progress development of power-to-liquid SAF, created by combining captured carbon with green hydrogen. Boeing will jointly establish a testing programme for Zero Petroleum’s SAF at the University of Sheffield Energy Innovation Centre, of which the airframer is a founding member.

Mission Zero Technologies says its new DAC plant can retrieve an annual 50 tonnes of ‘high-purity’ CO2 from the atmosphere. Operated remotely, but energised by solar power generated on site, the portable plant is designed to enable rapid scaling and to integrate with load-variable renewable power grids, providing “a plug-and-play source of sustainable carbon on demand for both sustainable use and permanent removal.”

Dr Nicholas Chadwick, the company’s CEO, welcomed the partnership with the University of Sheffield, which, through its Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC), provides one of Europe’s biggest and best-regarded zero carbon energy and research facilities.

Using the MZT technology, TERC will validate end-to-end production of jet fuel created from recycled atmospheric carbon, ahead of the SAF’s certification. It will use water and solar energy sourced on the TERC site.

The companies said DAC was widely recognised as the only technology able to deliver sustainable carbon feedstock to support the UK government’s proposed mandate of 10% SAF use by 2030.

“Direct air capture is a multi-use technology able to drive deep industrial decarbonisation and permanent carbon removal,” said Dr Chadwick. “Through pioneering partnership we’re already realising that potential.”    

MZT said its DAC plant was one of only two such systems globally to secure commercial funding. Its backers include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the XPRIZE foundation, Anglo American and Stripe, as well as the UK government.

“This first-of-a-kind UK DAC-to-jet fuel project will provide project financiers and developers with the analysis required to scale a UK SAF ecosystem,” said MZT. “By proving DAC’s readiness for industrial scale, it will also pave the way for more fossil-dependent industries to rapidly decarbonise.”

TERC Managing Director Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian said the DAC deal was “hugely exciting for us, and for the world, as we discover more about the potential for decarbonised industrial processes and air transport using novel DAC technology.”

In separate recent initiatives, Zero Petroleum, an emerging UK-based renewable fuels company, announced partnerships with companies including Boeing to progress development of power-to-liquid SAF, created by combining air-captured carbon and green hydrogen.

Boeing will jointly establish a testing programme for Zero Petroleum’s SAF at the University of Sheffield’s Energy Innovation Centre.

The aircraft maker’s partnership with the university is designed help innovative fuel producers to test, mature and scale their SAF, while its tie-up with Zero Petroleum follows other recent SAF collaborations in the UAE, Ireland, Japan, Ethiopia and Brazil.

“The aviation industry needs to move quickly to meet upcoming mandates for de-fossilisation,” said Zero Petroleum’s CEO, Paddy Lowe. “Synthetic fuels provide the only fully scalable solution.”

In Oxfordshire, England, the company recently opened Plant Zero.1, an engineering-scale production facility which it claims to be “the world’s first fully featured synthetic fuel plant,” with on-site capability to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air, generate renewable electricity from solar panels, produce green hydrogen from water electrolysis, and create synthetic fuel.

The SAF currently produced at Plant Zero.1 is an “engineering grade” product, developed for market evaluation and approvals required for ASTM certification. Planning is underway for a second facility, Plant Zero.2, which the company says could start making 100% drop-in synthetic fuels as early as 2025.

“Collaborating with Boeing will now enable us to accelerate the qualification process and put us on course for commercial delivery by 2026,” said Lowe. “Our collaboration with Boeing sets an industry precedent for the recognition and support for synthetic fuels in the global pivot to sustainable solutions.”

Sheila Remes, Boeing’s VP Environmental Sustainability, said that for the next 30 years, SAF would be aviation’s biggest lever in reducing emissions, “but we need more of it now to enable those reductions. Working with innovators around the world such as Zero is crucial as we collaborate to develop new, sustainable pathways to produce and scale up SAF.”

Top photo: MZT’s modular DAC unit at the University of Sheffield’s TERC

Tony Harrington

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The United Kingdom government has opened the second application round of its £165 million ($205m) Advanced Fuels Fund that provides financial support for the construction of sustainable aviation fuel plants in the country. The grant funding is to be provided to first-of-a-kind commercial and demonstration scale projects at all development stages up to the start of construction. In the first round, five projects – Alfanar Energy (Lighthouse Green Fuels), LanzaTech UK (DRAGON), Fulcrum BioEnergy (NorthPoint) and Velocys (Altalto and e-Alto) – received funding totalling £82.3 million. The government is aiming to have five plants under construction by 2025 to help meet its proposed 10% mandate for SAF use by 2030. It has also launched a second consultation on the mandate, running until June 22, which sets out how the mandate will deliver carbon savings, provide incentives to SAF producers and encourage potential SAF investors. The government has also confirmed the University of Sheffield will deliver the first UK Clearing House to support the testing and certification of new SAF.

Announcing the moves, Aviation Minister Baroness Vere said: “This renewed support for sustainable aviation fuel is another step towards making Jet Zero a reality. Developing a UK SAF industry will not only put the country at the heart of green aviation worldwide, but also boost investment, jobs and fuel security in the UK.”

The government points to research indicating that by 2035, the UK SAF sector could generate a gross value added (GVA) of up to £742 million ($924m) annually and support up to 5,200 jobs, with a potential of a further 13,600 jobs from the growing SAF market through global exports. In addition, UK manufactured fuels could deliver a £550 million ($680m) per year benefit to the nation’s balance of payments and increase fuel security.

Selected projects in the Advanced Fuels Fund competition, which is being delivered with the support of Ricardo and E4Tech, are required to demonstrate their potential to produce SAF capable of reducing emissions by more than 70% on a lifecycle basis when used in place of conventional fossil jet fuel. As part of support for a diverse range of technologies that utilise a range of sustainable feedstocks, the fund will reserve a new ‘sub-pot’ of funding for the second window to support projects that use CO2 – either point source or direct air capture – as their main carbon source in fuel production. Projects that rely on crop feedstocks or used cooking oil are excluded from the competition. Announcement of the winners and start of the funding period for the second window is expected in September this year.

The purpose of the new SAF Mandate consultation is to seek views on:

• Overarching targets to be set for 2030 and beyond;
• Targets to supply power-to-liquid fuels and a cap on HEFA pathway fuels;
• A potential buy-out price, which determines the maximum incentive for supplying SAF;
• Eligible fuels and sustainability criteria;
• Design of the scheme including who the obligation applies to and how certificates will be issued, traded and used for compliance, and how the obligation will be discharged;
• The administrator and enforcement of the scheme; and
• Interactions with other domestic and international policymakers.

The UK’s commitment to net zero by 2050 requires a rapid decarbonisation of the economy, namely a 68% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and a 75% reduction by 2035 from 1990 levels, including international aviation and shipping emissions. Given the level of uncertainty surrounding alternative solutions to decarbonising aviation, SAF is seen as one of the key levers in the transition, along with the co-benefit it brings in reducing sulphur dioxide and particulate matter emissions, and potentially other non-CO2 impacts, including contrails.

The government says the long-term obligation provided by a SAF mandate can generate demand for SAF, provide an incentive to SAF producers (in the form of  tradeable credit) and signal to investors the vital role the technology will play in the UK. It recognises that SAF production relies on technology that is yet to be proven at scale, leading to high initial capital and operating costs and uncertainty on return on investment.

“Without a long-term regulatory and policy framework in place to support industry and provide certainty, these factors act as barriers to an investable proposition for technology developers and investors. Consequently, production capacity will continue to be limited in the UK,” it acknowledges. “A SAF blending mandate will guarantee a level of SAF demand that provides more certainty to investors, and as a result will increase production level and drive emissions reductions. Early intervention and support in this market will drive the industry to move faster than it otherwise would.”

In the absence of an obligation on SAF, supply in the UK is assumed by the Department for Transport (DfT) in its Cost Benefit Analysis accompanying the consultation to be low, given the lack of demand certainty, apart from some incentive provided by the UK ETS and CORSIA for airlines to use SAF. Uptake on a business-as-usual basis is assumed to reach 2% of jet fuel demand by 2030 and 10% by 2050.

Under the DfT’s central trajectory to 2040 (of three possible ambition options – low, central and high), the level of the mandate, as a proportion of UK aviation fuel use, begins at 2% in 2025, rising linearly to 10% in 2030. From there, it increases to 22% in 2040, on track for a 2050 ambition of 50%, in line with the ‘high ambition’ scenario from the government’s Jet Zero Strategy.

However, says the DfT, there are “substantial risks” around all of the considered options if there are insufficient feedstocks available to produce the required SAF, either domestically or via imports. “In all three trajectories, we do not expect all SAF claimed under the mandate to be produced domestically,” it says, noting that the UK currently imports 61% of its jet fuel.

The SAF mandate will place an obligation on suppliers of aviation fuel to demonstrate that a given proportion of fuel supplied is SAF, in line with the trajectories. Suppliers will receive credits for each tonne of SAF supplied, which will vary based on the GHG abatement each fuel provides relative to a baseline abatement of 70% compared to standard jet kerosene. Suppliers can meet their obligation in three ways:

• The obligation can be met entirely through the supply of SAF.
• Fuel suppliers who exceed their obligation can sell excess credits to those suppliers who do not meet their obligation.
• Suppliers can buy out of their obligation by paying a fixed sum per credit of fuel not supplied.

The buy-out price is proposed as a core part of the mandate policy, to incentivise compliance with the mandate whilst also serving as a price cap on the cost to industry and consumers where the supply of SAF is not possible or too costly. Setting the buy-out price at the correct level is critical to ensure compliance with the mandate, says the DfT. If set too low then suppliers may choose to buy out instead of supplying SAF but if too high, any supplier unable to meet their obligation through the supply of SAF will face a large cost burden that in turn would place an undue financial strain on industry and, by extension, consumers.

The buy-out price can be calculated, says the DfT, as the cost per credit of the most expensive SAF pathway less the cost to supply kerosene. “Using the most expensive fuel pathway will ensure SAF fuel suppliers will be fully incentivised to meet the obligation,” it says, and is suggesting a buy-out price of £2/litre, or £2,657 per tonne.

A separate mandate for power-to-liquid (PtL) fuels requires a separate buy-out price and as they are a more costly fuel type, a higher buy-out price is needed, with the DfT proposing a central buy-out price of £2.75/litre, or £3,525 per tonne.

The government proposes that civil penalties be imposed on an obligated supplier or account holder applying for certificates if they fail to meet certain criteria. It is seeking views and supporting analysis on whether a minimum fuel uplift requirement on flights departing a UK airport should be introduced to discourage airlines from taking on extra fuel for inbound flights to avoid having to refuel in the UK for cost reasons, a practice known as tankering.

The DfT expects airlines will pass on at least some of the SAF purchasing costs to consumers in the form of increased ticket prices. The actual ticket price impacts of the SAF mandate policy will depend in part on the options chosen relating to the trajectory, buy-out price, HEFA cap and PtL target.

“As this consultation does not set out a preferred option on these elements, we are not able to set out central estimates of the ticket price impacts at this stage but hope to do so alongside the government response to the consultation,” says the DfT. “Impact on ticket prices will be an important factor when making decisions about the SAF mandate.”

In the short term, the DfT is expecting SAF production to be heavily focused in the developed nations but in the medium to long term, nations with cheaper access to renewable energy and currently un-utilised feedstocks will be a key part of the international SAF mix and global SAF production will ramp up quickly. Around 8 million litres of SAF were produced and used globally in 2016, compared to 300 million litres in 2022 and an expected 5 billion litres (4 million tonnes) by 2025. The DfT estimates there are currently 41.6 billion litres (33 million tonnes) under offtake agreements, “giving planned plants higher levels of certainty in the future demand for their product.”

The UK’s first SAF Clearing House is due to open this summer and will be led by the Energy Institute at the University of Sheffield. It will be based across the university’s Sustainable Aviation Fuels Innovation Centre (SAF-IC) and Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC), where academics and industry will work together to develop new low and zero-carbon fuels and technologies.

Any new aviation fuel must meet strict specifications before it can be certified as safe for use in aircraft and must undergo stages of testing against a process to meet the required ASTM standard. The cost of this testing is a significant barrier to new fuels entering the market and the Clearing House will give advice to fuel producers on testing, provide assistance with testing facilities and facilitate fuel certification.

“This significant and much-needed addition to the UK’s decarbonisation landscape will help to reduce barriers to SAF delivery and will take a vital step on the journey to make SAF a viable solution for the future of aviation,” commented Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian, Head of the Energy Institute.

“With our world-class sustainable aviation fuels research and testing facilities at SAF-IC, as well as the significant amount of sustainable power-to-liquids capabilities at the neighbouring TERC, we are ideally placed to drive forward the much-needed development, testing and delivery of SAF.”

Photo: Heathrow Airport

Christopher Surgenor

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Following its successful bid for UK government funding of £1 million ($1.2m), Virgin Atlantic says it expects to conduct the first-ever net zero transatlantic flight to be powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel in November. The airline has put together a consortium with six partners – Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, ICF and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) – and is forming up to seven working groups for what it describes as a highly challenging project. Virgin is targeting the Rolls-Royce engine-powered Boeing 787 flight between London Heathrow and New York JFK to carry non-paying passengers, subject to approval by regulators, a representative from the airline told a UK SAF conference. The flight is part of the UK government’s ‘Jet Zero’ strategy to decarbonise the UK aviation sector, with SAF as one of the main tools for achieving a target of net zero emissions by 2050. To create a demand for SAF, the government is introducing a mandated obligation on fuel suppliers from 2025. A Department for Transport (DfT) official said a second consultation on the mandate will be launched shortly, with a final policy decision expected later this year.

Virgin is looking to acquire around 60 tonnes of HEFA fuel with a 12% synthetic aromatic content, of which 45-50 tonnes will be used for the transatlantic flight and the remainder for testing and approvals purposes, Luke Ervine, the airline’s Head of Sustainability, informed delegates at the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Supply Chain Initiative event in Leeds organised by Innovate UK KTN, a government agency tasked with accelerating the creation of a UK SAF industry, and supported by the DfT and industry group Sustainable Aviation.

“We’d love to have passengers onboard but that is going to involve a lot of conversations at a high level with the UK CAA and DfT,” said Ervine. “Everything will be grounded in safety and we will be led by the approvals process.”

He said the airline was currently considering commercial agreements with potential UK suppliers for the HEFA fuel requirement and the synthetic aromatic kerosene would need to be imported from the United States as there was only one supplier at present.

Virgin is working with the University of Sheffield on fuel analysis and ICF on lifecycle assessment and emissions reduction validation. Another working group, involving RMI and Imperial College, will focus on climate-warming contrail formation to better understand the roles SAF and route planning can play in their avoidance. US-based RMI has recently formed a cross-sector task force, which includes Imperial College, to explore opportunities to address the warming impact of contrails.

Imperial’s Dr Marc Stettler told the conference non-CO2 effects, particularly from ice crystal contrail formations in the upper atmosphere caused by water vapour and soot particles from jet engine exhausts, were at least as important as CO2 in terms of the overall climate impact of aviation, which taken together contribute around 3.5% to total anthropogenic radiative forcing.

Pointing to research carried out by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stettler said there was evidence that cleaner-burning jet fuels made from sustainable sources can produce 50-70% fewer ice crystal contrails at cruising altitude. Given that only a small number of flights, particularly those flying at dusk or dawn, or in wintertime, were responsible for most of the warming contrails, he suggested there were potentially significant climate benefits by targeting the use of SAF on these flights.

In addition to the use of SAF, the Virgin flight will focus attention on flight efficiency and route optimisation, and to ensure it is completely net zero, residual emissions will be removed through biochar carbon credits purchased from the carbon market.

“We intend collecting all the data and create an open source information platform across industry stakeholders to share the lessons learned and help others with their own operations,” said Ervine.

Hazel Schofield, Deputy Head of Low Carbon Fuels at the UK Department for Transport, said the government mandate would ensure 10% of UK jet fuel by 2030, around 1.5 billion litres, was made up of SAF produced from wastes, with a separate target for power-to-liquid fuels. A cap would be placed on HEFA fuels to encourage new-generation fuels produced from gasification/FT and alcohol-to-jet technologies.

She said the impending government consultation would include full details of what will be included in the legislation and how the 2030 target was to be achieved. The government is also setting up a SAF clearing house to help potential UK SAF producers access testing capacity in the UK for certification purposes rather than ship fuel abroad for testing. Schofield said the DfT hoped to announce a delivery partner shortly.

Other than decarbonisation, she said the government had three main priorities for setting up a UK SAF industry: fuel resilience so the UK was not reliant on imported fuels, opportunities for UK green economic growth and also for green jobs. However, there were four barriers to investment in SAF:

• Feedstock access;
• Technologies required for conversion;
• Construction of plants; and
• Revenue uncertainty

She said the government has commissioned an independent review of the challenges and a report would be published shortly, after consideration by ministers.

“Yes, there has been a lot of progress and we have moved forward over the last year but there is certainly a lot more to do,” she concluded.

Also speaking at the conference, Jonathon Counsell, Group Head of Sustainability at International Airlines Group and Chair of the Jet Zero Council’s SAF Delivery Group, said that to achieve the 10% by 2030 target, five commercial-scale SAF production plants needed to be under construction by 2025.

“These plants will therefore need to hit financial close by mid-2024, so policies will need to be in legislation by the end of this year or certainly in the first half of next year,” he said.

“We recognise the mandate can create a demand signal but this needs to be supplemented by some form of price stability mechanism, such as we’ve seen in other renewable industries and we strongly feel it’s needed for SAF.”

To ensure price certainty and reduce investor risk, Counsell suggested a proven policy instrument such as Contracts for Difference should be implemented by the government.

The Jet Zero Council is a government/industry body set up in 2020 with the objective to accelerate delivery of net zero emissions for the UK aviation sector, with a focus on areas needing policy support. Counsell’s SAF Delivery Group has three sub-groups responsible for the mandate’s development, SAF commercialisation and technologies and feedstocks required for SAF production. Twelve financial institutions are now participating in the commercialisation sub-group, said Counsell.

He reported overseas interest in the JZC concept. “We have had conversations with other countries who would like to replicate the Council. We are supporting the establishment of a JZC in Australia and engaged in discussions with Spain and Ireland,” he said.

Ministers responsible for the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy co-chair the Council. The latter was broken up in a reshuffle last week to create a new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which is led by former Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps.

Image (Boeing): Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9

Christopher Surgenor

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