The UK needs more SAF plants

Where there’s muck there’s brass, it’s said. And with waste turning commercial, will there enough to turn into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)? According to Sustainable Aviation, the collective of UK airlines, airports, manufacturers, air navigation service providers and others, the UK does have sufficient SAF feedstocks (such as household, commercial, agricultural and forestry waste and waste industrial gases) for domestic production to meet well over the 10 per cent UK SAF mandate requirement by 2030.

But the number of UK plants to make SAF which have already been announced would meet only a small reducing carbon emissions from aviation. However, feedstock availability remains the key challenge for the industry. Our investment in Firefly and its sewage sludge SAF technology is a major step forward for Wizz Air in securing its long-term ability to provide low-cost fares to its customers in an ever more environmentally sustainable way. From 2028, we are aiming to procure 525,000 tonnes of SAF from Firefly over a period of 15 years. This has the potential to reduce our emissions by 100,000 tonnes CO2-eq per year, which is equal to the emissions of over 12,000 return Wizz Air flights between London and Budapest.”

James Hygate, CEO of Firefly Green Fuels, added: “ The investment will accelerate the commercialisation of our gamechanging Firefly process, with the binding offtake agreement saving a staggering 1.5m tonnes of carbon emissions. The feedstock, sewage sludge, is available in vast quantities globally and with Firefly we can put it to a truly beneficial use, reducing the use of fossil fuels in the hardest to decarbonise areas.” percentage of this demand. And even these may not be built if they cannot raise the finance needed.

Previous analysis by Sustainable Aviation has shown a UK sustainable aviation fuel industry could create 20,000 jobs and £3 billion in economic activity by 2035.