Merger enables possibility of multibillion-pound power-to-liquid eSAF production on Teesside
Green Lizard Group announced Oct. 8 that a major step toward reindustrializing the North East of England is now secured with a strategic merger between one of the region’s biggest industrial land owners and a green-chemical technology provider.
The merger of North Tees Group and Green Lizard Technologies to form Green Lizard Group brings together the infrastructure, land and advanced technology needed to enable one of the U.K.’s first green power-to-liquids chemical hubs.
The newly formed Green Lizard Group is a landholding, estates-management and green-chemicals development company.
Green Lizard Technologies was founded in 2015 as a spin-out from Queen’s University, Belfast, becoming a successful technology partner and innovation incubator.
“As well as attracting billions of pounds of inward investment to Teesside and creating tens of thousands of high-value jobs for generations, the hub will help solve a priority issue in the U.K.—the green production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), with the ambition to produce 1 million metric tons of SAF per year from 2035,” Green Lizard Group stated.
The hub will sit on a 500-acre site on the north bank of the River Tees, uniquely positioned in the heart of the Teesside regional hydrogen hub and the proposed CO2 capture and storage pipeline.
“We will help reindustrialize the Tees Valley by creating and exporting eFuel products, such as SAF, which is a big priority for aviation and the U.K.’s economic activity,” said Ian Hunter, CEO of the newly formed Green Lizard Group. “We have the location and infrastructure, and now, by merging with Green Lizard Technologies, we have the advanced technical capability to make a range of sustainable versions of fuels such as aviation fuel, marine fuel, gasoline and diesel from green sources such as methanol. We have been developing the planning consents and infrastructure on our site for some years in readiness for the energy chemical revolution, and the U.K.’s net-zero priorities bring that day ever closer.”
Key to this is a “micro-grid of clean, always-on” power, Hunter said. “We are exploring the best options for power to support our program, including an agreement to work closely with Community Nuclear Power Ltd. to develop a plan to deploy the U.K.’s first privately funded small modular reactors on the site. We have developed this as a single site of linked parts, rather than a piecemeal collection of local factories. This creates more value in energy issues of national priority, such as SAF.”
The chemicals hub will be a center of excellence for power-to-liquids, according to Green Lizard Group, which simply means using clean and stable energy to power the manufacture of net-zero carbon products such as chemicals and fuels.
As well as working with partners and tenants to maintain this excellence, the group will collaborate with university networks in the U.K. and overseas to continue to develop future-generation technologies.
“There is much focus on the importance of carbon capture in the U.K., but relatively little said about utilizing that carbon once it is captured,” said Green Lizard Technologies CEO Martin Atkins. “Our chemicals hub will turn carbon into green and sustainable fuel products needed for business and transport, such as SAF, all while attracting investment and talent to the North Tees region. An important part of something with so much economic impact will be engaging with stakeholders, from local authorities to our communities. We’re also talking to potential investors and partners to develop maximum value for the site and for the region.”