Teesside set for world’s biggest waste-to-SAF plant

Known as the Lighthouse Green Fuels project, it is being developed by Dutch waste-to-fuel specialist N+P alongside Saudi conglomerate Alfanar. The partners are actively seeking waste sources from around the UK and will build a number of processing facilities based on where those sources are located. These satellite plants will convert non-recyclable household waste into high-carbon content pellets, with the pellets then used to make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at Alfanar’s Lighthouse Green Fuels facility in Teesside.

According to the partners, the project will require the equivalent amount of rubbish produced by Birmingham and the wider West Midland Metropolitan Area each year. This feedstock will produce 165 million litres of SAF - equivalent to 2,500 long-haul flights or 25,000 short-haul flights – and around 10 per cent of the UK’s 2030 SAF target.

“Our new partnership with Alfanar enables us to take non-recyclable household and commercial waste and convert it into pellets, which can then be used to produce sustainable aviation fuel,” said Lars Jennissen, chief development officer, N+P Group. “We maximise the usage of these materials which have already had a life in the value chain.