UK government awards over £65m to SAF projects

The UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) unveiled the winners of Window 3 of the Advanced Fuels Fund (AFF) competition today (22 July).

Over £65 million (€76 million) in grant funding has been awarded to 17 cutting-edge sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects, with dozens more already supported through previous rounds.

From municipal waste to biogenic CO₂, sawmill residues and green hydrogen, these projects demonstrate the UK’s growing technological diversity in the SAF space.

All winning proposals are expected to deliver lifecycle emissions savings exceeding 65% compared to conventional fossil jet fuel.

Delivered with technical support from Ricardo Energy & Environment and ERM, the AFF aims to accelerate deployment of first-of-a-kind (FOAK) SAF facilities by funding feasibility work, front-end engineering design (FEED), parts of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and early-stage construction.

In the latest round, LanzaJet UK secured £10 million (€11.7 million) for "Project Speedbird" in Wilton, which will convert advanced bioethanol into SAF using ethanol-to-jet technology.

Alfanar Energy received £8 million (€9.4 million) for its Lighthouse Green Fuels facility in Stockton-on-Tees, using forestry residues processed via torrefaction, gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.

Carbon Neutral Fuels, awarded £6 million (€7 million), is developing a Workington-based plant that will use solid oxide electrolysis and captured CO₂ to create synthetic SAF.

British Sugar was granted £2.6 million (€3 million) for its Wissington plant, which will convert sugar beet residue ethanol into SAF using ethanol-to-jet processes.

Additional recipients include Essar Oil UK in Stanlow (£2.5 million / €2.9 million); Equinor Low Carbon UK in the Humber (£3 million / €3.5 million); ETFuels in Teesside (£5 million / €5.9 million); Zero Petroleum in Saltend (£3.5 million / €4.1 million); University of Sheffield (£1.5 million / €1.8 million); Altalto Ltd in Immingham (£3 million / €3.5 million); and several other early-stage and commercial-scale developers, highlighting strong geographical spread and a diverse technology base across the UK.

Across all three funding windows, the AFF has now supported more than 30 SAF projects, from feasibility studies to near shovel-ready construction; over £140 million (€164 million) in cumulative grant allocations; and a pipeline targeting a combined annual production capacity in the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of SAF by the early 2030s.

Among early recipients, Velocys plc received the largest grant award to date - £27 million (€31.6 million) - for its Altalto Immingham project (Window 1), expected to produce 37.4 kilotonnes per year of SAF from residual waste by 2028.

Fulcrum BioEnergy (£16.76 million / €19.6 million), Nova Pangaea Technologies (£9 million / €10.5 million), and LanzaTech (£24.96 million / €29.2 million) are also progressing large commercial-scale facilities backed by earlier AFF support.

The UK government has made it clear that SAF is a central pillar of its Jet Zero strategy. AFF funding is designed to de-risk early deployment and ensure the UK builds a domestic SAF production base to support future blending mandates, while creating green industrial jobs and attracting long-term investment.