Velocys receives 2 grants from UK government

U.K.-based Velocys plc on Dec. 12 announced it has been awarded two new grants through the U.K. Department of Transport’s Advanced Fuels Fund to support its planned waste-to-sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility and an e-fuels project.

Velocys’ wholly owned subsidiary, Altalto Immingham Ltd., has been awarded a grant of up to £27 million for the proposed Altalto Immingham SAF project, which is being developed under an existing joint development agreement between Velocys and British Airways. The grant will allow Altalto Immingham to deliver the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage of the project.

The grant funding will be distributed over the grant period from December 2022 to March 2025 and is conditional upon receipt of private sector matched funding. According to Velocys, Altalto Immingham has obtained letters of intent from a number of existing and new potential partners for the private-sector matched funding requirement with the first tranche of private funding due to be in place by April 2023. Construction on the project is currently scheduled to begin in 2025.

Velocys has previously received grants for the Altalto Immingham project of £1.7 million from the DfT’s Green Fuels, Green Skies competition and a series of grants totaling £934,000 from the Future Fuels for Flight and Freight competition, the predecessor to Green Fuels, Green Skies.

“We are extremely pleased the U.K. Government has awarded Velocys this important grant which will deliver the FEED stage for our Altalto Immingham reference project accelerating the commercial deployment of Velocys’ technology and delivering cashflow,” said Henrik Wareborn, CEO of Velocys. “We welcome this clear commitment from Government to having commercial SAF plants built in the UK. We are delighted that a number of large commercial companies have indicated their support for the project through indications of matched funding contribution and the provision of services to progress the project.”

Velocys also announced it has also been awarded a grant of £2.5 million to contribute its technology to an e-fuels project in the U.K. in collaboration with a number of new and existing partners. This grant will be used in conjunction with the e-fuels project’s partners to conduct feasibility, technical validation, site selection and pre-FEED engineering for such a project, to make SAF from carbon dioxide and hydrogen, in the U.K. The e-fuels project, to be known as e-Alto, will be managed by Velocys. Partners in the project include Clariant Catalysts, Technip Energies and British Airways.