‘World’s 1st’ hydrogen-to-synthetic jet fuel demonstrator plant to open in London

The world’s first synthetic aviation fuel (SAF) demonstrator plant will begin operations at London’s Oxford Airport next month. OXCCU, a carbon capture and utilization company based in Oxford, is developing a facility to produce one kilogram of SAF daily.

Synthetic aviation fuels, also known as Power-to-Liquid (PtL) fuels, hold the potential to decarbonize the aviation industry since they are made using carbon captured from other processes. Like fossil fuels, they are made up of hydrocarbons and can be easily substituted in jet engines.

Trial flights using 100 percent SAF have already been completed in different parts of the world. Estimates suggest that using SAF can reduce emissions from aviation by as much as 80 percent, providing a major boost to their research and development in recent years.

How is SAF made?

There are a myriad of approaches to making SAF. The technique used varies by the starting material, which includes woody biomass, vegetable oils, hyper-fermented sugars , or even oils extracted from algae.

Depending on the approach used, SAF production can require a few to multiple steps, and each type of SAF has a blending limit as per ASTM standards. Typically, all approaches aim to combine carbon from the feedstock with hydrogen in the air to make long hydrocarbon chains that can be used as jet fuel.

OXCCU’s approach varies from the conventional approach because the company believes that captured carbon is a better feedstock for the process instead of relying on food or biomass. The company also uses renewable energy to synthesize its SAF, making its approach more environmentally friendly than the rest.

World’s first SAF demonstrator plant

OXCCU claims its innovative approach has reduced the steps needed to produce SAF to just one. Instead of converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, which most SAF manufacturers do, OXCCU’s approach generates the hydrocarbon fuel using a single step. It calls the SAF made using this approach, OX-EFUEL.

This method saves time during the production process and skips an energy-intensive step, which helps the company reduce the cost of making its SAF. The marked reduction in the cost of SAF will aid in greater technology adoption.

In addition to increasing demand for sustainable fuel, the approach will also provide a market for capturing CO2 instead of storing it underground.

“The fuel we’ve already made in a single step from CO2 in the lab has created great excitement with its potential to massively reduce the cost of SAF, but the scale up is key,” said Andrew Symes, CEO of OXCCU, in a press release.

The company’s demonstrator plant, OX1, is designed to produce one kilogram of SAF every day. The data and fuel produced at the facility will be used as inputs in the design, construction, and operation of OXCCU’s larger SAF facility planned at the Saltend Chemical Park in Hull. When ready, this facility will produce 160 kg of SAF every day.

“Our mission is to enable future generations to fly without a climate impact, and to do that we need cost-effective PtL SAF. This launch marks a key step in achieving that goal,” Symes added in a press release.