Gaynor Hartnell, Chief Executive of the Renewable Transport Fuel Association said

“We particularly welcome the Government’s commitment to have at least five domestic SAF plants under construction by 2025.  SAF is the only viable solution for long haul flight, and is the only means of rapidly bringing down emissions in short haul and medium haul flight.

Dedicated SAF production plant typically cost around £500 million upwards, and lenders will need to address various concerns before they will provide funding; certainty of revenue and certainty regarding the policy environment is a key requirement, and confidence over feedstock availability is another.

The RTFA would like to see a Contract for Difference for SAF (or an equally effective price stability mechanism), alongside a commitment from Government to oversee a transition away from residual municipal solid waste being used for the production of electricity to its use for the production of fuels, where it saves a great deal more carbon emissions.”

Notes

SAF = Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

The RTFA is the trade association for renewable and low carbon fuels and has all significant prospective SAF producers and technology providers in membership, along with Phillips 66 whose Humber Refinery in North East Lincolnshire is already producing SAF (by co-processing renewable feedstocks alongside crude oil).

A Contracts for Difference (CfD) programme is used to procure large scale renewable power generation projects, and is a model being considered for other capital-intensive environmental projects.

A CfD would not address all risks in the financing of a SAF project, but it ticks off the fundamental requirements of price stability and protection against unforeseen policy changes.

SAF can also help reduce the non-CO2 impact of aviation on climate change.  A component of conventional aviation fuel – the aromatics (molecules containing carbon rings) exacerbate contrail formation and contrails heighten the effect of global warming and may account for more than half of the entire climate impact of aviation.

RTFA members active in SAF production / project development / technology provision include

  • Advanced Biofuel Solutions Ltd
  • Alfanar Energy Limited
  • Fulcrum BioEnergy Limited
  • Green Fuels Ltd
  • Lanzatech UK Ltd
  • Nova Pangaea Technologies (UK) Limited
  • Petrofac
  • Phillips 66 Ltd.
  • Velocys Plc