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3 hours ago 3 min read
The UK government’s Department for Transport (DFT) has launched a £219m ($293m) low carbon fuels fund (LCFF) to meet sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate targets and support decarbonisation efforts across the domestic aviation industry.
From mid-July, UK-based aviation companies can apply for a share of £93m ($125m) over the next two years to scale SAF production.
The DFT said support will be focused on projects closest to commercial deployment.
The fund is intended to help the UK meet its SAF mandate, which requires SAF to account for 10% of jet fuel demand by 2030 and 22% by 2040. The government estimates the mandate could deliver up to 6.3 million tonnes of annual carbon savings by 2040.
LCFF is projected to add £5bn ($6.7bn) to the UK economy by 2050 and follows the UK’s Advanced Fuels Fund (AFF), which has invested £198m ($265m) in cleaner aviation technologies since 2022.
In July 2025, the UK government awarded £63m ($84.5m) through the AFF for projects developing SAF through clean technology, such as power-to-liquid (PtL) processes.
For the industrial gases sector, the funding could support wider deployment of PtL SAF pathways, which combine renewable hydrogen with captured carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce synthetic aviation fuels.
Synthetic fuel pathways can require significant volumes of CO2, with several tonnes of CO2 needed for every tonne of fuel produced. At commercial scale, a single large e-SAF plant could consume hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 annually.
However, PtL projects continue to face challenges including the high cost of green hydrogen production and competition for renewable electricity.
Biomass-based SAF pathways also face feedstock constraints, while gasification routes can produce hydrogen-deficient synthesis gas requiring additional hydrogen inputs.
Call for evidence
Alongside the LCFF announcement, the UK government has launched a call for evidence on the SAF mandate to receive industry feedback.
The consultation will examine the outlook for different SAF production pathways, including PtL fuels, which are subject to a dedicated obligation from 2028.
Under current plans, PtL fuels must account for 0.2% of total jet fuel demand from 2028, rising to 3.5% by 2040.
The government will also assess the impact of the mandate’s cap on hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) fuels, which is set at 71% of SAF supply in 2030 and 35% in 2040 to encourage deployment of advanced fuel technologies.
The call for evidence comes amid industry feedback that once the PtL obligation and HEFA cap are active, the availability of non-HEFA and PtL SAF could be much lower than expected, disrupting the domestic SAF supply chain.
Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, said, “The call for evidence on future SAF targets is also an important step towards giving industry the long-term certainty needed to scale production and accelerate private investment today and beyond 2030.”
