With its headquarters in Saudi Arabia, engineering company alfanar has outlined its vision for a series of multi-billion-pound green investments in the UK. The first of these investments, the planned £1bn Lighthouse Green Fuels waste-to-SAF plant, which is under construction in Teesside in the UK, entered the FEED phase in June after alfanar awarded the contract to Worley. The plant is due to be up and running in 2027.
According to alfanar, the project is currently the most advanced SAF facility in the UK. It will use gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert one million tonnes of everyday household and commercial waste into 180 million litres of SAF and green naphtha per year – the equivalent of fuelling more than 15,000 short-haul flights a year.
Located in Teesside’s net-zero industrial cluster, the plant has the potential to utilise the East Coast Cluster’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure, due to be available from the mid-2020s to further reduce the SAFs carbon intensity. The engineering firm is also actively assessing other UK sites for second and third SAF plants to be built by 2030 and 2035 respectively, with plans to develop further green projects in the UK and beyond using CCS and hydrogen infrastructure.
Commenting on the plant’s progress, Mishal Almutlaq, Chief Investment Officer said: “With the third largest aviation network in the world, and one of the largest potential offshore CO2 stores, the UK has the industrial and geological advantages to become a global leader in developing green aviation fuel with the lowest possible emissions using CCS technology. That is why we want to build our first ever SAF plant in the UK by 2027 and two further plants by 2035.
“To deliver net-zero aviation, the government has already established the Jet Zero Council and announced grant funding for SAF projects as well as consulting on a Jet Zero Strategy. To continue this leadership, and to enable alfanar’s first SAF project and other similar early projects to progress, price certainty is also needed. We are therefore today calling on the UK Government to progress the SAF mandate and introduce a price stabilisation mechanism such as a Contract for Difference for SAF.”
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, added: “Whether it be in hydrogen, CCUS, offshore wind or SAF, Teesside has established itself as a global centre for developing the green technologies that will mean we can achieve our ambitious net-zero targets.
“This milestone by alfanar is another first, and further strengthens our region’s position as the number one place to develop new clean energy tech. alfanar’s SAF plant will create 700 good-quality well paid jobs during construction and 240 full-time roles when operational, fuelling our economy whilst reducing the emissions from a huge number of flights.”
