A slew of new sustainable aviation fuel initiatives have been announced in the US, including major supplies for United Airlines and JetBlue at their respective hubs in Chicago and New York, Airbus investing in emerging SAF producer LanzaJet and UK start-up Firefly Green Fuels partnering with US biosolids feedstock provider Synagro Technologies to produce low carbon fuel in North America. United will receive up to 1 million gallons (3,000 tonnes) of SAF during 2024 from Finland’s Neste, which has just commissioned a new terminal facility in Houston, Texas, while JetBlue will take at least 1 million gallons from World Fuel Services, potentially by the fourth quarter of this year. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, meanwhile, has joined a list of big-name investors in LanzaJet, which recently activated the world’s first ethanol-to-SAF facility, Freedom Pines Fuels in Georgia.

By signing for SAF from Neste’s newly-commissioned SAF terminal capacity at ONEOK’s Galena Park Terminal facility in Houston, Texas, United, the world’s third biggest airline, will become the first carrier to buy SAF to power regular commercial flights from Chicago O’Hare, the third busiest airport in the US.

The new capacity at ONEOK’s terminal provides Neste with storage capacity of up to 100,000 tons (around 33.5 million gallons) and is directly connected to the energy pipeline infrastructure in the eastern part of the US. The SAF is expected to be piped to Chicago from August, expanding the availability of Neste’s product to airlines operating from east of the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast.

The deal has been underpinned by the Illinois SAF Purchase Credit, introduced last year for every gallon of the fuel sold to or used by an airline in the state.

“This is what happens when innovation, leadership and policy come together,” said United President Brett Hart, who praised the Illinois Legislature and State Governor JB Pritzker for introducing the incentives which powered the SAF deal at Chicago O’Hare. “While the market for SAF is still in its infancy, there is a huge opportunity today for airlines and policymakers to work together to support its continued growth.”

Alexander Kueper, Neste’s VP, Renewable Aviation Business, said the deal expanded an existing partnership with United, which has already procured Neste SAF in San Francisco and at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. “We are excited to expand our partnership with United and see our SAF being used at one of the major airports in the US,” he said. “It underlines our commitment to supporting the US aviation industry in its efforts to decarbonise and shows the important role that policy supports like the federal SAF 40B credit and the Illinois SAF Purchase Credit play in accelerating SAF usage.”

JetBlue, too, is ramping up its SAF use, signing with US-based World Fuel Services to provide the first regular supply of blended SAF to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport, pumped in via existing infrastructure including the Colonial Pipeline, America’s largest pipeline system for refined fuel products.

Neat SAF produced by Diamond Green Diesel will be blended with conventional jet fuel by Valero Marketing and Supply Company, then delivered to World Fuel. The airline will acquire at least 1 million gallons of neat SAF, equivalent to 3.3 million gallons of blended fuel, potentially as early as the fourth quarter of this year. It will also have an option to procure up to 4 million gallons more (about 13.3 million gallons blended), though the timeline for the additional fuel was not disclosed.

“This newly available SAF in our hometown is a key signal of the growing engagement by major fuel producers and the potential of SAF to meaningfully address aviation’s carbon emissions,” said Sara Bogdan, the airline’s Managing Director of sustainability and environmental social governance. “By leveraging Valero’s globally recognised expertise in energy markets and logistics, and by utilising existing jet fuel distribution infrastructure, this new, large-scale supply of SAF is set to be a pivotal moment as the industry grows the use of SAF.”

Brad Hurwitz, World Fuel’s SVP, Supply and Trading, welcomed the JetBlue deal to bring SAF to JFK Airport, strengthening the energy company’s ambition to develop a consistent flow of the fuel to the US east coast.

“Today, as a result of state-level programmes incentivising the use of renewable fuels, the majority of domestically supplied blended SAF is delivered into west coast airports,” he said. “Engagement across public and private sectors is needed to expand the supply of SAF to more cities and grow the economies of scale.”

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has become the latest investor to support US-based SAF producer LanzaJet, strengthening that company’s plans to produce the fuel not only in America but in multiple other markets. To scale its alcohol-to-jet fuel technology, LanzaJet is involved in projects in 25 countries across five continents.

By participating in LanzaJet’s s latest growth equity funding round, Airbus joined a high-profile list of investors and funders including All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Southwest Airlines, French airports company Groupe ADP, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, sustainable finance group Breakthrough Energy, Shell, Suncor Energy and Japan’s Mitsui & Co and MUFG Bank.

“Sustainable aviation fuels are one of the most important levers available to decarbonise aviation, but their production is still limited,” said Julie Kitcher, Chief Sustainability Officer at Airbus, echoing a consistent and increasing concern in the aviation sector. “Our partnership with LanzaJet demonstrates Airbus ’commitment to work with leading energy technology suppliers to explore innovative production pathways and scale SAF.

“This important partnership with LanzaJet underlines the importance of new technologies and cross-sector collaboration to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.”

The renewable fuel company uses low-carbon ethanol to create SAF, a process it says will reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70% compared to conventional fossil-based jet fuels.  

“LanzaJet intentionally developed a diverse portfolio of strategic investors consisting of leading global companies to ensure we have the ecosystem to scale the SAF industry,” said CEO Jimmy Samartzis. “This important investment from Airbus supports the growth of our company, enabling LanzaJet to scale the production and deployment of SAF to continue working towards meeting aviation’s decarbonisation goals and developing a more sustainable industry.”

LanzaJet is involved in developing a SAF production project – Project Speedbird – in the UK in partnership with British Airways and Nova Pangaea Technologies. In the reverse direction, UK-based start-up Firefly Green Fuels, whose technology converts sewage sludge into high performance fuels including SAF, has announced that Baltimore-headquartered Synagro will be the exclusive supplier of biosolid content in the American market.

Firefly uses as process called hydrothermal liquefaction to chemically transform biosolid waste into biocrude and biochar, the former upgraded to SAF and the remainder to other uses including fertiliser. It recently secured investment funding from a partnership of Boeing and sustainable investment group Clear Sky. 

“This is a perfect partnership with monumental implications,” said Synagro’s CEO, Bob Preston. “We’re pairing Synagro’s expertise in sustainable solutions for biosolids with Firefly’s SAF technology to evolve the circular economy.”  

James Hygate, CEO of Firefly Green Fuels, said there was a huge requirement for SAF in North America, the world’s biggest combined air transport market. “By working together, we can bring operations online quickly, creating new jobs and vast volumes of truly sustainable fuel.”

Photo: United will become the first carrier to power regular commercial flights from Chicago O’Hare with SAF

Tony Harrington

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Two new global investment funds focused on sustainable aviation – one backed by Airbus, the other by Boeing – have announced their first projects as concerns deepen across the air transport sector about a lack of capital to develop new fuels, infrastructure and technologies. Clear Sky has been launched by a team of aviation and finance executives to accelerate a range of projects that help cut aviation emissions. Clear Sky’s first commitment is a co-investment with Boeing in UK-based startup Firefly Green Fuels, which plans to convert sewage waste feedstock into SAF. A second consortium of seven prominent aviation and finance groups has established the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Financing Alliance (SAFFA), focused purely on speeding up production of SAF. Led by Airbus, SAFFA has invested in US-based Crysalis Biosciences, which has purchased a decommissioned ethanol plant in Illinois and converted it to produce low carbon intensity SAF and biochemicals.  

Clear Sky has been developed by six partners  – Krishnan Narayanan, a former partner and regional leader at PWC Strategy&, with broad experience in sustainability and new technologies; Simon Talling-Smith, a former CCO of Qatar Airways and EVP at British Airways, and a specialist in innovative technologies; Glenn Morgan, a former CTO of International Airlines Group (IAG) and founder of its Hangar 51 innovation programme; Robert Boyle, a former Chief Strategy Officer at IAG;  Kurt Stache, a former CMO of American Airlines; and Julia Sattel, a former president of travel technology group Amadeus and VP Strategic Marketing at Toshiba.

Its multi-strand investment strategy covers sustainable aviation fuel, carbon removal systems, alternative propulsion technologies, innovative ground operations and materials recycling.

“Our analysis showed sustainable aviation was highly underpenetrated when it came to capital, particularly alternative investment capital,” said Clear Sky founding partner Narayanan. “By various estimates, up to $5 trillion of capital will be required over the next three decades for aviation to get to net zero. So there’s clearly more capital required, but it needs to be invested in the right things in the right way by the right experts. And I think generalist funds generally struggle to do that. Hopefully by having a bunch of aviation experts act as a catalyst we can achieve both of those things.”

Together with Boeing, with which it has formed a broader partnership to invest in sustainable aviation and related sectors, Clear Sky announced during the recent Farnborough Airshow that it will support Firefly Green Fuels in transforming sewage waste feedstock through hydrothermal liquefaction, a process which uses heat and high pressure to convert waste into biocrude oil and biochar, a powdery product which can be used as fertiliser. The companies claim that SAF produced through this process could reduce lifecycle CO2 emissions by over 90%.

“SAF offers the greatest opportunity to decarbonise aviation, and the industry’s collective challenge of bringing it to scale globally requires new sustainable pathways,” said Boeing’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Brian Moran. “Clear Sky combines many years of investment expertise with knowledge on aviation’s decarbonisation challenges. Firefly’s technology holds transformative potential as the SAF feedstock – sewage waste – is accessible in all regions of the globe.”

Firefly CEO James Hygate said his company was clearing the way to “cost competitive and globally available fuel” in a market where demand for SAF well outstrips supply. “With the support of Clear Sky and Boeing, we are propelling toward our goal of commercial production in the UK by 2029,” he said, “and rapid replication across the globe.”

Clear Sky’s Narayanan welcomed the partnership with Boeing – “undoubtedly a leader in advancing aviation’s decarbonisation journey” – and signalled more projects would be announced.

Coinciding with the Firefly deal, travel technology group Amadeus also signed a letter of intent to invest in the debut fund from Clear Sky. “The journey toward sustainability in the travel industry is one we must undertake together,” said Decius Valmorbida, President of Travel, Amadeus.  

Airbus is leading the new SAFFA investment fund with big-name partners Air France-KLM Group, Associated Energy Group, BNP Paribas, financial services and capital group Burnham Sterling, Mitsubishi HC Capital and Australia’s Qantas Group. The companies, which collectively have committed approximately $200 million, partnered with Burnham Sterling Asset Management to establish the alliance, which aims to accelerate SAF production and provide members with priority access to the fuel. 

SAFFA’s first investment is in technology company Crysalis Biosciences, which is focused on renewing US chemical production infrastructure with new fuel and chemical technologies. Crysalis recently acquired and upgraded the Monarch facility, a decommissioned ethanol plant in Sauget, Illinois, and has just secured environmental approvals to produce low carbon intensity SAF and biochemicals.

“Each partner brings experience and financial expertise to the fund with the ambition to accelerate the availability of SAF by investing mainly in technologically mature SAF-producing projects using, for instance, waste-based feedstocks,” said Airbus. “Investments will be diversified across various SAF production pathways and also by region.

“Each partner may then enter into priority contracts to secure SAF offtakes from the various projects SAFFA will invest in for its allocated volumes. SAFFA is focusing on SAF that is eligible for RefuelEU Aviation or CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) certification.” 

Photo: Krishnan Narayanan (Clear Sky), Brian Moran (Boeing) and James Hygate (Firefly) sign investment agreement

Tony Harrington

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At a joint presentation in London, European low-cost carrier Wizz Air announced it has set a goal of powering 10% of its flights with sustainable aviation fuel by 2030, while its UK SAF partner Firefly unveiled plans for an initial sewage-to-SAF demo plant on the east coast of England. The fast-growing airline is looking to expand its current fleet of 206 Airbus narrowbody fleet to around 500 by the end of the decade and meeting its aspirational SAF target will require a significant ramp-up of SAF production and deployment, it acknowledged. Adopting a portfolio approach, Wizz Air has entered into a number of agreements, including a multi-year offtake with Firefly, which in turn has signed MoUs with industrial partners including Haltermann Carless, Petrofac, Chevron Lummus Global and Anglian Water. It hopes to construct an operational demo facility by 2027 and reach commercial-scale production by 2029 at an existing facility near the port of Harwich.

Following a collaboration with Airbus on a hydrogen project, Wizz Air has decided progress on this form of powering future aircraft is too slow and no longer fits with its medium to long term fleet strategy, and it is now fully focused on SAF, as well as ambitious fleet renewal and operational efficiency plans. In 2023, the airline achieved a record annual average CO2 intensity of 51.5 grams per passenger/km, a 6.8% year-on-year reduction, and has committed to reduce carbon emissions per passenger/km by 25% by 2030.

SAF will play a crucial role and is the game changer in reducing carbon emissions from aviation but there are big challenges over cost and availability, acknowledged Yvonne Moynihan, Corporate and ESG Officer at Wizz Air. “Therefore, we call on policymakers to address barriers to SAF deployment at scale by incentivising production, providing price support and embracing additional sustainable feedstocks for biofuel production,” she said.

As a low-cost fares airline, Wizz Air operates at secondary airports across Europe, where Moynihan fears SAF supplies are likely to be scarcer than at the main hubs. It is also competing with rival budget airline Ryanair for SAF, which has set an ambitious 12.5% by 2030 target. There is a reluctance by the carrier to pass on the SAF price premium to its customers, who she said were very price sensitive, and hopes policy incentives can relieve the cost burden.

“The more that policy can drive investment, the more likely the cost of SAF production can be lowered and therefore provide better availability and at lower prices so that we don’t need to pass them on,” she said, adding the airline favoured a Europe-wide SAF book-and-claim system in order to avoid the probability of large quantities of SAF being trucked around Europe to comply with the mandate rule that all EU airports will need to be supplied with the fuel regardless of where it is produced.

The airline has signed offtakes with producers for supplies in Europe but recognises it may have to import SAF from outside. In May 2023, along with low-cost carriers Frontier Airlines and Volaris, it joined a $50 million investment round in US SAF production startup CleanJoule, which included binding agreements by the three carriers to purchase up to 90 million gallons of SAF.

A £5 million equity investment in Firefly in April 2023 was Wizz Air’s first as a venture capitalist. “We hope this will encourage others in the industry to do the same thing,” said Moynihan. The funding will help Firefly with development, testing and qualification of its novel fuel produced through a new and as yet unapproved technology pathway.  

Wizz Air will be Firefly’s launch customer, with production of first volumes slated for 2028/2029 and delivered for use by the airline at Luton Airport. The offtake agreement is across 15 years for 525,000 tonnes of SAF in total and carries a reported value of almost $1 billion, with a potential to save 1.5 million tonnes of CO2-eq over the period, say the partners.

Moynihan said the airline was attracted to the Firefly project by the low feedstock costs and an expected competitive SAF end-price. Firefly estimates human sewage sludge – or biosolids, the useful dry solid fraction of the sludge – has the global potential to produce around 40 billion litres of SAF per year. In the UK alone, the prospective production could amount to 224,000 tonnes of SAF. The company is claiming its fuel is projected to deliver a 90% reduction in GHG emissions compared to fossil jet fuel on a life-cycle basis.

The Firefly production process involves hydrothermal liquefaction, also called hydrous pyrolysis, that converts the biosolid feedstock to biocrude and then hydrotreated to produce sustainable transport fuel. Another by-product of the process is biochar, which can be used for soil enhancement and carbon sequestration. As the new pathway is still in the ASTM certification process, Firefly is unable to say what the maximum blend limit will be for the fuel but expects it to be at the higher end of the scale.

The company has entered into a number of MoUs with industrial partners on its first Firefly Harwich plant, although it is still pulling together the necessary investment. The initial pilot facility, on which Firefly expects to break ground “in the coming months”, will be built at a specialist refinery site that is being repurposed by German hydrocarbon-based production company Haltermann Carless, which also has SAF ambitions in its home country. In 2022, it commissioned a hydrogenation plant at its Speyer site, close to Frankfurt Airport. It is expecting to produce around 60,000 tonnes of SAF and renewable chemicals annually from 2026, based on the alcohol-to-jet process and using EU RED II certified raw materials such agricultural and forestry residues.

Halterman Carless has also just signed a MoU with electricity generation and renewable energy company RWE to develop a green hydrogen plant on the Harwich site that would enable CO2 emissions to be reduced from production. The partners have completed feasibility studies for a green electrolyser at the site and they report work is underway to assess both grid and water connections to enable the project to go ahead.

US company Chevron Lummus Global, a joint venture between energy giant Chevron and Lummus Technology to supply technology for the production of transportation fuels, will provide bespoke refinery infrastructure to the Firefly Harwich project. CLG has developed its ISOTERRA hydroprocessing technology to convert feedstocks into SAF or renewable diesel. The design and build of the Firefly pilot plant will be handled by energy industry services provider Petrofac, which has already completed the pre-FEED study for the facility.

The feedstock will be provided by Anglian Water, which provides water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment to the East of England.

“The signing of these agreements marks a significant leap forward in realising our ambitions to develop a sustainable SAF industry here in the UK,” said James Hygate, CEO of Firefly, which plans to build three plants in the country. “Opening up this new sewage pathway will bring new jobs and growth to the UK, helping us to secure a greener and more prosperous future.”

Image: Wizz Air

Christopher Surgenor

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As the UK pursues its ‘Jet Zero’ target of net zero emissions from its aviation sector by 2050, a raft of new initiatives by government and industry have taken place over the past week. To coincide with the Sustainable Skies event held at Farnborough on April 17, the eighth meeting of the Jet Zero Council, which is made up of government, industry and academic representatives, revealed an action plan for the next two years covering zero emission aircraft development and sustainable aviation fuel production. The event also saw a fly-past by an RAF Airbus A330 partly powered by SAF that had undertaken a training air-to-air refuelling exercise over the North Sea. The government also published an independent report on developing a UK SAF industry, and UK industry group Sustainable Aviation unveiled an updated version of its Net Zero Carbon Road-Map. Meanwhile, LanzaTech has revealed plans by its UK subsidiary for Wales’ first SAF production plant and low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced an investment in UK sewage-to-SAF company Firefly.

The Jet Zero Council, which is jointly chaired by the government’s Transport Secretary and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary, adopted its two-year plan with actions to speed up the design, manufacture and rollout of zero emission aircraft and the required infrastructure at UK airports. It also sets out how the Council will help to accelerate SAF production through investment in first-of-a-kind SAF plants, supporting scientific research on a larger scale and help to drive down production costs. The Council meeting also agreed to set up a group to advance knowledge and mitigation options on the non-CO2 impacts of aviation.

“This government is a determined partner to the aviation industry – helping accelerate new technology and fuels, modernise their operations and work internationally to remove barriers to progress,” commented Transport Secretary Mark Harper. “Together, we can set aviation up for success, continue harnessing its huge social and economic benefits, and ensure it remains a core part of the UK’s sustainable economic future.”

The centrepiece of the drive to have 10% of the annual aviation jet fuel mix, roughly 1.2 million tonnes, made up of SAF by 2030 is a SAF blending mandate, on which a second government consultation recently started under a tight policy process to have the full details confirmed later this year or early 2024 and legislated by the final quarter of 2024, ready to start in 2025. By then, it is hoped that at least five commercial-scale SAF plants will be under construction. As well as the mandate, through its Advanced Fuels Fund, the government has put up grants totalling £165 million ($205m) to help first-of-a-kind projects get off the ground.

However, there is a groundswell of opinion that this will not be enough to attract the large outside investment required, and other policy instruments, such as a price stability mechanism, will be required. Last October, the Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned an independent report to be undertaken by Philip New, former CEO of the Energy Systems Catapult and BP Alternative Energy, “to help understand the conditions needed to create a viable long-term SAF industry in the UK.”

The report’s framing section asks the basic questions of whether producing SAF is a rational use of renewable energy resources, whether emerging alternative aircraft technologies could render SAF redundant or if the UK needs a material domestic SAF manufacturing base. If the answer is affirmative to these questions, the second section proposes a set of possible interventions that “would support the creation of a competitive, sustainable and enduring UK SAF industry.”

New’s findings show SAF is indeed key to aviation decarbonisation and the UK has the potential to play a leading role, particularly in the development and deployment of SAF made from waste streams, a technology close to readiness. Whilst the proposed mandate “is a very promising market shaping mechanism”, he found a consensus that it needed to be supported by other interventions to attract investment in UK supply. Key interventions with the greatest leverage, he says, would support the UK’s nascent advantage in feedstock supply and underpin revenue confidence.

“There could be a powerful synergy between standards, the mandate and a bilateral public law contract type of mechanism, for example, akin to the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme used in the renewable power sector,” he says. “There is potential for this to be underwritten by industry, not government.”

His report concludes: “With the imaginative application of market-shaping levers, the UK’s concentration of developers with potential projects, remarkable cross-sectoral commitment, legacy strengths in aviation technology and fuels infrastructure, and potential strengths in feedstock access, financing could be leveraged to build a SAF industry with only a limited call on public finances. Such an industry would create thousands of green jobs and support fuel supply security.”

In its response to the report, the DfT says: “The government will continue to consider whether additional support is required alongside delivery of our existing commitments on the Advanced Fuels Fund and SAF mandate. There are a number of options which could be considered to help address the revenue certainty barrier for SAF plants in the UK. Any further support will be tested for deliverability, investability, affordability and simplicity.

“One option to provide revenue certainty could be the private law contract mechanism recommended in the report, though this type of scheme has never been implemented in parallel to a mandate before in the UK, or globally. The government must therefore consider how any potential support mechanism would interact with the SAF mandate and other incentive mechanisms such as the UK ETS, ensuring that it operates successfully in tandem and avoids unintended consequences. Furthermore, designing and implementing a mechanism such as a private law contract is likely to be complex and take time to implement, particularly a bespoke CfD scheme.

“We will work together with industry through the Jet Zero Council to consider the best way to support the aviation industry to decarbonise, including considering options for additional revenue certainty for a UK SAF industry to be provided via an industry-funded intervention. If required, following further engagement, we will launch a formal government consultation this summer.”

To coincide with the Council meeting and the Sustainable Skies World Summit 2023 event, which attracted 7 the Royal Air Force flew its Airbus A330 Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker, which also operates as a VIP passenger and freight aircraft, in a round-trip from its Brize Norton base. Carrying a 43% blend of SAF in both engines, the aircraft performed an air-to-air refuel over the North Sea before a fly-over of the Farnborough Airport runway. The 50 tonnes of SAF used for the flight was sourced and funded by International Airlines Group and supplied by Air bp.

New industry net zero roadmap

The meeting also saw the launch of the UK cross-industry group Sustainable Aviation’s Net Zero Carbon Road-Map, which updates previous versions published in 2020 and 2021.

“This is a critical decade where aviation must prove it will decarbonise. Our updated roadmap shows that we have a clear, credible path to take carbon out of flying,” commented Matt Gorman, Chair, Sustainable Aviation. “Through a combination of sustainable aviation fuel, more efficient aircraft and airspace, zero emission planes and carbon removals, we can protect the huge benefits of aviation for future generations without the carbon cost.”

However, he said, decarbonisation would happen faster and create more jobs and investment with the right government policy support.

“The US and Europe are surging forwards in the race to create new industries in sustainable aviation fuels and technology. The UK has all the natural advantages to be able to join them, but we need to move quickly. An agreed mandate for SAF as soon as possible and a price support mechanism – building on Philip New’s independent report – are key policy areas where we can act now to gain a share of the huge prize of making Britain the natural home of net zero aviation.”

The industry group calls on the government to deliver commercial UK SAF production at scale this decade and the commitment on the five plants being under construction by 2025 by providing an industry-funded price stability mechanism alongside the mandate, and prioritising access to UK sustainable feedstocks.

It also asks for the acceleration of the UK airspace modernisation programme, with completion by the end of the decade, and investment by government in zero carbon emission flight technology through increased matched funding to the Aerospace Technology Institute programme. It also calls for residual aviation carbon emissions to be addressed by accelerating the rollout of carbon removals, including them in the UK ETS “and ensuring aviation’s fair share”.

The roadmap shows the industry plans to reduce its carbon emissions by nearly 70 million tonnes to net zero by 2050 (see below), compared with a scenario of growth at today’s efficiency, broken down as follows:

• 9.6 MtCO2 saving due to decarbonisation cost impact on demand;
• 2.5 MtCO2 saving from better air traffic management and operating procedures;
• 9.5 MtCO2 saving from the introduction of known and new, more efficient aircraft;
• 10.6 MtCO2 saving from the introduction of future, more efficient types including electric and hydrogen aircraft;
• 26.4 MtCO2 saving from sustainable aviation fuels; and
• 8.8 MtCO2 saving from permanent carbon removals.

“With these actions, the UK will be able to accommodate significant growth in passengers through to 2050 whilst reducing emission levels from just under 40 million tonnes of CO2 per year down to zero,” says the roadmap report, which adds that a full and detailed technical report on the Road-Map will be published later this year and further work will be carried out during the year on non-CO2 impacts.

Accompanying the Road-Map is a Sustainable Aviation-commissioned report by consultants ICF called ‘Roadmap for the development of the UK SAF industry’. It says 1.2 million tonnes (MT) of SAF will be required in 2030 to meet the government ambition, increasing to 7.0 MT by 2050 to achieve net zero in a central case with 75% of residual carbon addressed through SAF. Announced SAF capacity in the UK is around 0.6 MT, so at least 0.6 MT remains to be met by unannounced capacity or imports, although relying on imports will be challenging, it says, with a global shortfall in announced capacity compared to targets of almost 4 Mt of SAF by 2030, equal to over three times the UK’s projected 2030 demand.

The analysis shows the UK has sufficient feedstock – biological and other – to fully decarbonise the aviation sector. In the central estimate, the roadmap conservatively estimates feedstock availability for 3.5 MT of SAF from waste and advanced feedstocks, and 1.9 MT from renewable electricity.

However, utilising UK feedstock requires new conversion technologies to be commercialised. The HEFA pathway dominates current SAF production but the waste fats and oils this approach requires are limited in their availability, and to achieve the necessary growth, technologies such as Fischer-Tropsch, alcohol-to-jet and others must be commercialised, says the roadmap report.

“These technologies hold great promise but will not be feasible without additional support,” it comments. “The high capital costs, uncertain revenue and complex technologies prevent investments until the level, type and longevity of policy support is known and sufficient. The Advanced Fuel Fund (AFF) has set the groundwork but additional support is urgently needed. Time is running short to get these complex facilities built and commissioned by 2030.”

New UK SAF production plans

One beneficiary of the AFF is LanzaTech UK’s Dragon project, which was awarded £25 million ($31m) last December in the first round of the fund to aid development of a commercial-scale plant in Port Talbot, Wales, that will convert steel mill off-gases into ethanol and then use LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) technology to produce SAF.

LanzaTech UK, a subsidiary of LanzaTech Global Inc, has now announced further plans for the project, which include seeking planning permission for the AtJ plant in the South Wales industrial heartland that would produce around 100 million litres of SAF per year, enough to supply around 1% of the UK’s jet fuel needs. The plans have been developed in consultation with Neath Port Talbot Council, Natural Resources Wales, Associated British Ports and the Welsh government. Subject to planning permission, which will be applied for later this year, construction of the plant is expected to begin in 2025, with production starting in 2026/7.

To produce ethanol for the plant, a second facility is planned that uses a naturally occurring organism that transforms greenhouse gases to ethanol as part of its natural lifecycle. The details of this gas fermentation facility would be progressed through a separate planning application when the location has been identified and confirmed, said the company.

“LanzaTech is thrilled to announce its plans to transform derelict land in Port Talbot into the site for Wales’ first sustainable aviation fuel production,” commented LanzaTech UK’s Managing Director, Jim Woodger. “The rich industrial heritage of the region will be maintained through innovative technologies like these that transform industrial waste gases into valuable products and create long-term, skilled jobs.”

LanzaTech said it would be sharing further details of its plans for the AtJ facility in the coming months and is seeking feedback from the local community on Project Dragon through a newly-launched website.

Meanwhile, fast-growing European low-cost carrier Wizz Air has announced a £5 million ($6.2m) investment in UK biofuel company Firefly, which is developing a process that converts sewage sludge into SAF. The investment, a first of its kind for Wizz Air, will support development and certification of the SAF and the airline expects to be able to use the fuel in its UK operations from 2028 under an offtake agreement to supply up to 525,000 tonnes over 15 years that would potentially save 1.5 million tonnes of CO2e. Wizz Air says the saving is equal to the emissions of over 12,000 flights between London and its home base, Budapest.

Firefly says more than 57 million tonnes of low-value sewage sludge are produced in the UK each year, with the potential to produce 250,000 tonnes of SAF. The SAF produced by Firefly will be independently certified by standards body RSB and is projected to deliver a 90% reduction in GHG emissions compared with fossil jet fuel on a lifecycle basis.

“The investment will accelerate the commercialisation of our game-changing process,” commented James Hygate, CEO of Firefly Green Fuels. “The feedstock, sewage sludge, is available in vast quantities globally and we can put it to a truly beneficial use, reducing the use of fossil fuels in the hardest to decarbonise areas.”

Firefly’s technology originated in the laboratories of Green Fuels, founded in 2003 and awarded a Royal Warrant in 2013. The current SAF project encompasses engineering design and construction of a demonstrator plant capable of generating the quantities of fuel to allow ASTM qualification. This in turn, said the company, would lead to a first-of-its-kind commercial refinery and rollout to several UK locations where airports, pipeline terminals and wastewater treatment works are in close proximity.

Photo: Refuelling of the RAF’s Voyager Airbus A330 with a SAF blend supplied by IAG and Air bp

Christopher Surgenor

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