The world’s first sustainable aviation fuel plant has opened in Oxford.
OXCCU, described as a carbon-to-value company converting carbon dioxide into fuels, chemicals and plastics, has launched the OX1 Plant at Oxford Airport.
Through its novel catalyst and reactor design – the subject of over a decade of research at the University of Oxford – the plant will convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) directly to jet fuel range hydrocarbons in a single step with minimal oxygenated byproducts.
The facility will produce 1kg – approximately 1.2 litres – of liquid fuel, known as OX•EFUEL, per day. It will start operations in September.
OXCCU is already looking to build a 160kg (200 litres) per day OX2 plant, which will operate at Saltend Chemical Park Hull in 2026. Commercial plants supplying the UK and elsewhere with PtL SAF will then follow.
Unlike other firms working on Power-to-Liquid (PtL) fuels, OXCCU says it has reduced a traditionally multi-step process to a single step, avoiding the need to first convert CO2 to CO – a difficult to electrify and energy intensive first step.
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“We’re beyond excited to launch the OX1 plant, located close to where OXCCU was born,” said Andrew Symes, CEO of OXCCU.
“The fuel we’ve already made in a single step from CO2 in the lab has created great excitement with its potential to massively reduce the cost of SAF, but the scale up is key, and this plant will generate the data and litres of fuel we need.
“Our mission is to enable future generations to fly without a climate impact, and to do that we need cost-effective [fuel]. This launch marks a key step in achieving that goal.”