New partnership behind world’s largest waste to SAF facility
Alfanar and N+P Group have announced a partnership to source and process up to 1 million tonnes per year of non-recyclable waste to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
The joint venture will require the equivalent to the amount of rubbish produced by Birmingham and the wider West Midland Metropolitan Area every year.
It will be used to create feedstock pellets which can then be used to produce SAF.
To process the waste, up to three further processing facilities will be built across the country – with locations dependent on where the waste is sourced from.
Everyday non-recyclable household and business rubbish, contaminated recycling loads and MRF residues can all be sorted by N+P for use in the process, instead of the rubbish being sent to landfill, burnt in incinerators or exported.
Recyclable and inert materials will be removed, before the waste is dried and turned into high carbon content pellets.
The pellets will then be converted into SAF at Alfanar’s Lighthouse Green Fuels facility in Teesside, which is due to be operational in 2028 and will create over 1,000 jobs during construction before employing 240 people locally when operational.
Taken together, this unique end-to-end solution will produce SAF that can be used in today’s aircraft engines and refuelling infrastructure with no modifications.
It will produce 165 million litres of SAF, equivalent to 2,500 long-haul flights or 25,000 short-haul flights per year – enough to meet 10% of the UK 2030 SAF target.