News
22/07/25
UK names SAF and e-SAF projects to share £63mn funding
London, 22 July (Argus) — The UK government has named 17 sustainable aviation
fuel (SAF) and e-fuels projects to share £63mn ($85mn) grant funding in the
third round of its advanced fuels fund (AFF). The projects range in size from
trials to commercial scale, and propose to use technologies incuding
alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) or synthesis of CO2 and renewable hydrogen to make e-SAF (
see table ). The UK gave the largest sum, £10mn, to US firm LanzaJet for its
80,000 t/yr SAF plant targeting 2028 start, which will exclusively supply to
British Airways. London granted £8mn to Riyadh-headquartered Alfanar for its
Lighthouse Green Fuels project that aims to make more than 125,000 t/yr of SAF.
Alfanar won £11mn and £8.7mn in the first and second rounds, respectively. Its
start date has slipped to 2029 and costs have risen to £2bn from £1.5bn, the
firm said last month. Some projects could make SAF and e-SAF, such as Essar’s
project at Stanlow, which aims to use a combined 550,000 t/yr of e-methanol and
biomethanol to make 200,000 t/yr of SAF products. It will use the funds for a
pre-front-end engineering design (Feed) study and it plans a final investment
decision in 2027, it said. Nine grant winners will make at least some proportion
of e-SAF, either directly from hydrogen or by converting e-methanol. This route
is sometimes called power-to-liquid in the UK. Of the e-SAF projects, the
largest award went to UK start-up Carbon Neutral Fuels, which won £6mn for a
project that aims to make 25,000 t/yr of e-SAF starting from 2031. The firm is
starting Feed for the plant, it said. The UK has now granted nearly £200mn to
projects through the AFF scheme, with the third round building on the £80mn
first round and £53mn second round . The third-round grants can go towards
engineering, procurement and construction, Feed studies, and pre-feed studies,
but not to feasibility studies. The UK is separately developing a revenue
certainty subsidy scheme for novel SAF and e-SAF production. At least one
UK-focused SAF project could stall having missed out on funding. The Gramm
Consortium is considering “last-minute options” to keep a proposed 250,000 t/yr
SAF plant in the UK and may re-locate to the US, the project’s lead Alexander
Peschkoff said. With an increasing number of world governments setting SAF
quotas, pressure is mounting to add more production pathways to avoid shortages.
The UK and EU have gone furthest in this respect by adding separate e-SAF quotas
to spur novel production routes. But there is much uncertainty about the best
technologies to use. The UK is fast approaching the 2028 start for its e-SAF
quota, while the EU’s is due to start in 2030. By Aidan Lea UK projects that won
grants in AFF third round Developer Award (£mn) Project Name Location Technology
Feedstock SAF projects LanzaJet UK 10.0 Project Speedbird North East, Wilton
Ethanol-to-jet Advanced bioethanol Alfanar Energy 8.0 Lighthouse Green Fuels
North East, Stockton-on-Tees Gasification, Fischer-Tropsch Sawmill and forestry
residues LanzaTech UK 6.4 DRAGON 1 & 2 Wales, Port Talbot & other undisclosed
site Ethanol-to-jet Recycled carbon fuel ethanol (Wales); bioethanol plus green
hydrogen (unnamed site) ETFuels UK 5.0 Project SkyFuel Teesside North East,
Redcar Methanol synthesis, methanol-to-jet Biogenic CO₂, green hydrogen SuMo
Engineering 4.2 CLEARSKIES West Midlands, Wednesbury Gasification,
Fischer-Tropsch Refuse derived fuel, biomethane Altalto 3.0 Altalto Immingham
Yorkshire and the Humber, Immingham Gasification, Fischer-Tropsch Municipal
solid waste Willis Sustainable Fuels 2.9 Teesside Carbonshift North East,
Teesside Autothermal reforming, Fischer-Tropsch Residue-derived biomethane
British Sugar 2.6 British BioJet East of England, Wissington Ethanol-to-jet
Sugar beet betaine residue bioethanol NorthPointe Energy 2.0 Project Northpoint
North West, Stanlow Gasification, Fischer-Tropsch Refuse derived fuel Projects
making at least some proportion of e-SAF Carbon Neutral Fuels 6.0 ASAP-DAC North
West, Workington Electrolysis, Fischer-Tropsch Low carbon power, direct air
capture / biogenic CO₂ Equinor Low Carbon UK 3.0 The Humber SAF Project
Yorkshire and the Humber, Humber region Methanol-to-jet Biomethanol, e-methanol
Zero Petroleum 3.5 Fuelling Zero Yorkshire and the Humber, Saltend Electrolysis,
Fischer-Tropsch Biogenic CO₂, green hydrogen OXCCU TECH 3.1 OXCCU South East,
Oxford Airport Combined catalysis Biogenic CO₂, green hydrogen Essar Oil / EET
Fuels 2.5 Stanlow Methanol-to-Jet North West, Stanlow Methanol-to-jet
E-methanol, biomethanol University of Sheffield 1.5 NEXTGEN-SAF Yorkshire and
the Humber, Sheffield Electrolysis, Fischer-Tropsch Renewable power, biogenic
CO₂ Power2X Solutions UK 1.5 eFuels Humber Yorkshire and the Humber, Humber Port
Methanol-to-jet E-methanol, biomethanol Equilibrion 1.0 Eq.flight Yorkshire and
the Humber, Hull Electrolysis, Fischer-Tropsch CO₂ from direct air capture,
local heat, nuclear power – UK Government Send comments and request more
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