Lift off for NEG8 Carbon in sustainable aviation fuel

Irish direct air capture (DAC) company NEG8 Carbon announced Nov. 19 that it has signed a contract for Phase 1 of a major project in the U.K. to develop large-scale sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) production using a low-carbon energy source.  

This paves the way for economic production of eSAF at scale, which is critical for decarbonization of the aviation industry. 

The CO2 provided via DAC will be combined with green hydrogen and nuclear-generated electricity to create eSAF in a specialized process.  

The eSAF produced will save over 90 percent emissions compared to traditional jet fuel and will comply with international SAF mandates. 

The project, known as Eq.flight, will be led by Equilibrion, which NEG8 Carbon said is pioneering the drive to decarbonize aviation using low-carbon nuclear energy through small and advanced modular reactors. 

Equilibrion was awarded £1 million (USD$1.32 million) for Phase 1 of the Eq.flight project as part of the U.K. Department of Transport’s Advanced Fuel Fund 2025 investment of £63 million (USD$83.1 million) in 17 clean-aviation initiatives, bringing to £198 million (USD$261.3 million) the total value of state investment in this area since 2022. 

NEG8 Carbon’s DAC technology is particularly suitable for this project as it uses low-carbon heat and electricity from nuclear, which the company said greatly reduces the cost and increases efficiency of the DAC process. 

“This positions NEG8 Carbon as one of the leaders in the field to produce sustainable aviation fuel using direct air capture of CO2,” said Ray Naughton, NEG8 Carbon founder and managing director. “The potential in this market is driven by the EU and U.K. government mandates to airlines to use more SAF in their fuel mix progressing to 70 percent in the EU by 2050. This creates a global SAF market with a value of $400 billion by 2050. NEG8 Carbon is now positioned to be a major player in this market.” 

Philip Rogers and Caroline Longman, co-founders and directors at Equilibrion, said, “We are committed to developing solutions that enable the aviation sector to offer lower-emission flights to customers around the world by leveraging low-carbon nuclear electricity and heat. Power-to-liquids (PTL) powered by advanced nuclear reactors offers the potential for the scale of production needed to make a major impact on climate change.” 

Direct air capture is a technology that extracts carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air.  

NEG8 Carbon’s DAC technology works by using fans to draw in large quantities of air and passing it through NEG8’s revolutionary low-cost CO2-extraction system.  

The extracted CO2 is either permanently stored underground or used practically in carbon-utilization processes. 

SAF is produced from a broad range of materials and feedstocks, whereas eSAF is made from CO2 captured from the air and green hydrogen.  

DAC is the only technology that can provide a large-scale source of green CO2 at million-ton scale at the eSAF production location. 

Equilibrion is a U.K.-based project developer and consultancy focused on using the potential of nuclear power to mitigate climate change.  

Eq.flight represents its flagship PTL SAF initiative.