LanzaJet advances UK biorefinery in Teesside

LanzaJet has been awarded more than $13 million (€11 million) from the UK Department for Transport’s Advanced Fuels Fund (AFF) to accelerate development of Project Speedbird, a major sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) biorefinery in Teesside, United Kingdom being developed primarily for British Airways.
The award will support the next phase of work on Project Speedbird as it progresses into Front-End Engineering Design (FEED), marking a key milestone in the creation of one of the UK’s first commercial-scale ethanol-to-SAF production facilities using waste-based feedstocks.
Among the projects selected in this round of the AFF, Speedbird received the largest award, underscoring LanzaJet’s advancement in the SAF industry, the maturity of the project, and the UK’s commitment to moving beyond pilots toward industrial deployment.
Project Speedbird is set to transform the aviation sector by producing SAF from low-carbon ethanol using LanzaJet’s patented and fully integrated Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology.
The LanzaJet solution incorporates Technip Energies’ Hummingbird® ethanol-to-ethylene technology, which Project Speedbird has licensed, and which is deployed at commercial demonstration scale for the first time at LanzaJet’s Freedom Pines Fuels facility in Georgia, USA.
“We’ve maintained a long-held belief that creating a new industry requires partnership across the public and private sectors.
“We’re proud to collaborate with the UK Department for Transport to advance Project Speedbird as a leading project catalysing SAF development in the UK,” said Jimmy Samartzis, chief executive officer at LanzaJet.
“This support demonstrates confidence in LanzaJet as a leading SAF company, in our AtJ technology, and in the critical role of ethanol-to-SAF in delivering economic growth, creating jobs, and decarbonising air travel. Project Speedbird is vital to building a national SAF industry in the UK and to unlocking opportunity and innovation in the region. We thank the UK Department for Transport for its leadership and vision in accelerating the transition to net-zero aviation.”