Biofuel first for Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport will become the first in the UK to have a direct feed of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

MAG – the owner of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports – has has reached agreement with Fulcrum BioEnergy Limited UK, which will support the development and delivery of SAF produced at a new waste to fuels biorefinery, on the Essar Oils refinery at Stanlow, Cheshire.

The £600m facility is planned to be operational by 2026, creating more than 800 direct and indirect jobs during the design, build and commissioning process, and approximately 100 permanent jobs during its operation.

SAF will be supplied to Manchester Airport through a pipeline that already runs between Stanlow and the UK’s third largest gateway.

Fulcrum is a pioneer in the conversion of non-recyclable residual wastes into sustainable fuels. The new biorefinery, Fulcrum NorthPoint, is part of wider plans to establish the North West as the leading producer of SAF in the UK.

SAF is obtained from sustainable feedstocks that can be combined with existing conventional jet fuel. SAF can achieve lifecycle emissions savings of more than 70% compared with conventional jet fuel.

The initiative could see up to 10% of the fuel used by aircraft at Manchester Airport replaced with SAF within five years of the Fulcrum NorthPoint facility becoming operational.