European consortium applies for funding towards new UK SAF production facility

A new sustainable aviation fuel consortium that is aiming to produce 250,000 tonnes of SAF a year from certified agricultural, forestry and processing residue in northwest England has applied for UK government funding to accelerate its project. The GRAMM Consortium includes major European energy and technology partners such as TotalEnergies, Axens and thyssenkrupp, which have developed a French end-to-end technology platform called BioTfueL. The project aims to capture and permanently store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 during production, reducing carbon emissions four times more than a benchmark set out in the UK SAF Mandate, says the consortium. It claims the project could deliver 53.5% of the UK’s 2035 SAF target at a “market-leading price” and create 850 new jobs, bringing economic revitalisation to a hard-hit region. The proposed location for the GRAMM SAF project is the Royal Port of Barrow, operated by Associated British Ports (ABP).

The UK’s Advanced Fuels Fund was launched in July 2022 by the Department for Transport and has so far allocated up to £135 million ($180m) through ‘application windows’ in grant funding to support first-of-a-kind commercial and demonstration scale projects. It aims to competitively allocate an additional £63 million until the end of March 2026.

“Support from the fund will propel UK sustainable aviation forward,” said Alexander Peschkoff, GRAMM Consortium Lead. “Meeting a significant part of the UK aviation sector’s net zero obligations will establish us as a leading sustainable aviation fuel producer. This project also proves that decarbonisation can tackle climate challenges while driving regional economic growth.”

If its application for funding is successful, the consortium says it will enable the project to move from planning to implementation.

Support for the project has come from a number of regional initiatives such as the North West Net Zero Hub, a programme dedicated to promoting investment in energy projects; Net Zero North West (NZNW), an industry-led collaboration driving industrial decarbonisation; and Enterprising Cumbria, a newly-established body working to boost economic development in the county.

ABP has announced an ambitious development masterplan to create an advanced engineering cluster. The port is also the location of another consortium partner, Centrica-owned Spirit Energy, which is planning to repurpose the depleted Morecambe Bay Gas Fields in Barrow into a “world-leading” carbon storage cluster. The MNZ Cluster aims to be able to accept up to 1 gigatonne of CO2 from emitters in the UK and Europe in its lifetime, the equivalent of three years’ worth of UK emissions.

“With a combination of expertise driven by our industry and the people who work there, our natural geological assets both on and off shore, and our transportation links, including our ports, the GRAMM project could further enhance the £30 billion pipeline of projects already identified across carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, renewables, nuclear and battery,” said Jane Gaston, CEO of NZNW. “They will not only deliver significant carbon reductions, but critically support industry in the North West to continue to make a positive contribution to the UK’s economic growth whilst operating in a more sustainable way.”

Other members of the GRAMM project team and consortium include Linde, KBR, Storegga, LWI, Envirosense, px Group and PA Consulting.

Photo (ABP): Royal Port of Barrow