Avioxx and NIRAS advance development of Cheshire SAF demonstration plant

Avioxx and its engineering and project development partner NIRAS have completed a site visit in Cheshire as development progresses on Avioxx’s first large-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) demonstration plant.

The visit brought together the Avioxx and NIRAS teams as detailed engineering and project development work progresses on the proposed 5,000 tonne-per-year facility, building on Avioxx’s extensive process modelling and technical development programme. The plant is intended to demonstrate the Avioxx technology platform at significantly increased scale and to establish the basis for subsequent commercial deployments.

Avioxx’s preferred location in Cheshire sits within the UK’s growing SAF ecosystem, with access to established industrial infrastructure and a strong regional engineering base.

The location benefits from proximity to established industrial infrastructure, including the Manchester Ship Canal, the HyNet carbon management network and Exolum’s fuel distribution infrastructure. These offer potential opportunities for future logistics, carbon management and fuel distribution, subject to further technical and commercial assessment.

Converting residual waste into low-carbon aviation fuel

The Avioxx process is being developed to convert non-recyclable residual waste into high-quality, low-carbon SAF. It integrates proven industrial processes with advanced electrochemistry in a highly integrated system designed to maximise efficiency and reduce the cost and carbon intensity of fuel production.

Avioxx’s objective is ambitious but straightforward: to produce SAF at a cost that can compete with fossil-derived jet fuel.

Using domestic residual waste as feedstock also offers a potential route to strengthening UK energy security, reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels while creating value from material that cannot economically be recycled.

A platform for commercial deployment

The Cheshire demonstration plant, Project Genesis, is an important step in Avioxx’s scale-up strategy. Rather than a standalone facility, it is intended to provide the blueprint for a repeatable engineering and commercial model that can then be deployed at larger scale across the UK and internationally.

The demonstration programme builds on Avioxx’s existing operational pilot facility at Runcorn, Cheshire, where the company continues technology development, process optimisation and fuel testing. Together with detailed process modelling and established industrial component technologies, this work provides the technical foundation for the proposed 5,000 TPA facility.

This approach is designed to de-risk the transition from technology demonstration to commercial-scale production step by step, while building the operational, engineering and fuel-performance evidence needed for wider deployment.

Supporting industrial growth in Cheshire

Development of the plant has the potential to bring new industrial investment and skilled jobs to the region. Runcorn, Warrington and the wider Cheshire area have significant capabilities in engineering, advanced manufacturing, chemicals and industrial operations, an established skills base the project can draw on as it progresses.

Avioxx believes a domestic SAF industry is an opportunity not only to decarbonise aviation, but also to support UK manufacturing, engineering, energy security and regional industrial growth.

Engineering towards construction

NIRAS is supporting Avioxx with engineering and project development as the company advances the demonstration facility through its next stages of design, planning and project development. The site visit gave the teams an opportunity to review the preferred location in the context of the developing plant design, its infrastructure requirements and the pathway to subsequent commercial deployment.

Chris Hancock, Co-Founder and CEO of Avioxx, said:

“Our objective is to make sustainable aviation fuel economically competitive with fossil-derived jet fuel. We are developing a repeatable technology platform that can be deployed at commercial scale in the UK and internationally.

“It was fantastic to have the NIRAS team on the ground in Cheshire as we continue translating the engineering into a physical project.”

Avioxx thanks Clare Bracken, Jim Buston, Thomas Vadum la Cour and the wider NIRAS team for their continued collaboration as the project progresses.