IAG invests in tyre-to-fuel firm Wastefront
Tyre-to-fuel company Wastefront has announced investment from the International Airlines Group (IAG) to help enable the company to begin construction on its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility in the Port of Sunderland.
Wastefront is investing £100m ($123.6m) to develop its production facility in Sunderland.
The plant is scheduled to begin production in 2026 and will process up to 10m waste tyres per annum via pyrolysis. The company has already signed a 10-year agreement with end-of-life tyres (ELTs) exporter Gateway Resources for the feedstock supply of ELTs at its plant.
Initially, Wastefront plans to co-process tyre-derived oil (TDO) into SAF in third-party refineries before transitioning to fully-dedicated SAF production facilities.
The plant will be built in phases, starting with one module producing 8,000 tonnes of oil annually and eventually expanding to four modules with a total capacity of 32,000 tonnes per year.
By 2030, Wastefront plans to operate four large-scale plants, collectively producing 128,000 tonnes of oil annually. This will feed into a centralised SAF facility capable of converting 70% of this oil into SAF, yielding approximately 90,000 tonnes of SAF per year.
“At Wastefront, our mission is to turn a problematic waste stream into a highly valuable resource. We can create SAF at an extremely competitive cost with a very low environmental footprint – capable of reducing carbon emissions in the production process of up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuels. This investment is a testament to the potential of Wastefront’s technology in tackling waste and air pollution,” said Vianney Valès, CEO of Wastefront.
The UK currently generates around 50m end-of-life tyres each year, with most of them currently exported to countries such as India where they are incinerated in cement plants or disposed of in landfills. The company plans to convert these tyres into valuable products like oil, gas, and carbon black.
“We’re proud to support innovators like Wastefront, who are finding new forms of feedstocks to produce advanced fuels. However, as global demand for SAF grows, it’s crucial to expand production in the UK,” said Jonathan Counsell, group sustainability officer at IAG.
IAG has already made various investments to secure SAF production including their recent agreement with US-based power-to-liquid company Twelve.
The group aims to reduce carbon emissions its operations, across its airlines Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL. Towards this, the IAG has already secured more than a third of its 2030 SAF target and was the first European airline group to pledge 10% SAF usage by 2030.
If you want to learn more about what Wastefront are doing, click here to read our interview with company’s CEO Vianney Valès.