Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition: winners
Updated 6 December 2021
© Crown copyright 2021
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-fuels-green-skies-gfgs-competition/green-fuels-green-skies-gfgs-competition-winners
The winning proposals for the Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition were announced on 3 December 2021. Each organisation received a share of £15 million for the development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) production plants in the UK. The competition is now closed.
Winning organisations
Advanced Biofuel Solutions Ltd
Advanced Biofuel Solutions Ltd (ABSL) will work with a British refinery and British engineering company to produce a detailed engineering design for a new facility in Cheshire. The plant will use gasification and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology to convert 133,000 tonnes of waste a year into a biocrude that can be upgraded to aviation fuel.
Awarded £2,054,000.
alfanar Energy Ltd
The alfanar’s lighthouse green fuels (LGF) project, located in Tees Valley, will use gasification and FT technology to convert household and commercial waste into around 180 million litres of SAF and naphtha. The project is currently completing design optimisation work ahead of starting front end engineering design (FEED) by the end of 2021.
Awarded £2,417,500.
Fulcrum BioEnergy Ltd
The Fulcrum NorthPoint project, being developed at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in Ellesmere Port, will use proven technology and processes based on the company’s first commercial-scale facility currently being commissioned in the US. Once fully operational, NorthPoint will convert residual waste into around 100 million litres of SAF using gasification and FT technology. Funding will support the FEED stage of project work.
Awarded £1,372,957.
Green Fuels Research Ltd
The firefly project is a joint endeavour between Green Fuels, Petrofac and Cranfield University that aims to demonstrate and certify a technology route to SAF from sewage sludge, a fully biogenic, UK-derived waste feedstock. Funding will support the project’s pre-FEED development stage.
Awarded £1,940,255.
Lanzatech UK Ltd
Funding will support the FEED stage of a proposed Lanzatech facility, located in Port Talbot, South Wales. The facility will produce over 100 million litres a year of SAF, using ethanol from biogenic wastes and industry flue gases, with the potential to support significant jobs in the area.
Awarded £3,152,619.
Lanzatech UK Ltd and Carbon Engineering
This feasibility study project proposes the integration of innovative technologies to produce over 100 million litres per year of SAF. Carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from the atmosphere using Carbon Engineering’s direct air capture (DAC) technology, and hydrogen from water electrolysis, will be converted into SAF using LanzaTech’s gas fermentation and LanzaJetTM’s alcohol-to-jet technology developed by LanzaTech and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Project members British Airways and Virgin Atlantic will study offtake potential and go-to-market routes for the fuel.
Awarded £340,674.
Nova Pangaea Technologies (UK) Ltd
This feasibility project is a partnership between British Airways, LanzaJet and Nova Pangaea Technologies. It will study the optimal design to construct a facility that produces more than 100 million litres a year using UK woody residues and the integration of Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA® and LanzaJetTM’s alcohol-to-jet fuel technology.
Awarded £484,201.
Velocys Projects Ltd
The Altalto project is being developed by Velocys and British Airways, to build a commercial waste-to-SAF plant in Immingham, Lincolnshire. Altalto will take hundreds of thousands of tonnes per year of black bag waste and convert it into SAF using gasification and FT technology. The project has received planning consent from North East Lincolnshire Council and funding will support progress towards FEED.
Awarded £2,381,000.
Background
This grant funding will directly contribute towards to the establishment of a UK SAF industry. All selected projects have a clear 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.
Specifically, the competition supports large-scale SAF production projects with their early-stage development, often referred to as:
- FEED
- pre-FEED
- feasibility study
Research indicates that by 2040 the SAF sector could generate between £0.7 billion and £1.66 billion a year for the UK economy, with potentially half of this coming from the export of intellectual property and the provision of engineering services.
The industry could create between 5,000 and 11,000 green jobs, disproportionately in areas aligned with the levelling up agenda. It could also increase UK fuel security.
This competition builds on the work of previous Department for Transport industry competitions, including the Advanced Biofuels Demonstration Competition (ABDC) and the ongoing Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (F4C) with the aim of unlocking the future environmental and economic benefits an advanced fuels industry can bring to the UK.
The Green Fuels, Green Skies competition was delivered with the support of Ricardo Energy and Environment and E4tech.