Velocys plc has secured a further £0.5 million (US$0.63 million) of grant funding for the Altalto waste-to-fuels project from the UK Department for Transport (DfT), under the Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (F4C).

The proposed Altalto Immingham plant is planned to convert hundreds of thousands of tonnes per year of residual waste into sustainable fuels, mainly aviation fuel.

Velocys was awarded a grant of £0.4 million in Stage One of the F4C in 2018, and was shortlisted to receive an award in Stage Two. The DfT has now made £0.5m of the Stage Two grant available to Velocys. Velocys is one of the two remaining companies expected to receive the balance of funding in Stage Two, subject to completion of future project milestones.

Velocys makes a compact, commercially-ready reactor for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons. By combining its reactor with gasification, purification and hydrocracking technologies that have been demonstrated at comercial scale, Velocys can provide an integrated end-to-end process that converts solid wastes, first to synthesis gas and then to liquid transport fuels.

The UK Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, also announced the establishment of a new Jet Zero Council to help make the aviation and aerospace sectors environmentally fit for the future.