Firefly announces world’s first sewage-to-SAF facility in Essex

Firefly Green Fuels on Thursday announced their plans to build a pilot sewage-to-sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility at Haltermann Carless refinery site in Harwich, Essex.

“The signing of these agreements marks a significant leap forward in realising our ambitions to develop a sustainable SAF industry here in the UK,” said James Hygate, CEO, Firefly while speaking to SAF Investor.

The company said the pilot facility will construct the facility by 2027 followed by a planned first-of-a-kind commercial-scale plant by 2029.

In a step towards expediting commercialisation, Firefly Green Fuels on Thursday announced that it has signed multiple agreements with Haltermann Carless, Petrofac, Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) and Anglian Water to address its feedstock to fractional distillation requirements.

Under the partnership agreement, renewable transportation fuels technology provider, CLG will provide refinery infrastructure, designed to optimise efficiency and flexibility while minimising emissions for Firefly’s commercial-scale plant. 

Moreover, to ensure adequate feedstock availability, Firefly has also entered in an agreement with Anglian Water to secure waste feedstock (sewage sludge) for the planned pilot facility. 

“We have feedstock supply agreements for the first phase of production with Anglian Water and others have also shown their willingness to supply the feedstock. We don’t have firm commitment with other utility companies yet but they have shown their support to Firefly as we scale this business,” told James Hygate while speaking to SAF Investor.

Low-cost European airline, Wizz Air, has already signed a 15-year SAF offtake agreement with Firefly. The agreement, signed in 2023, carries a value of around $1bn.