Rolling into the future: UK’s first tyre-to-fuel facility to accelerate global SAF production
February 28, 2025
The competition to ramp up production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is intensifying, with used cooking oil, household waste and even human sewage emerging as potential feedstocks. However, Norwegian company, Wastefront, is taking a unique approach by developing SAF from waste tryes and has begun construction of the UK’s first tyre-to-fuel facility in Sunderland.
Scaling domestic SAF production
Wastefront’s £100 million plant marks a major milestone in the UK’s commitment to SAF production. The construction of the plant, which was announced on Friday 28 February, comes hot on the heels of the introduction of the UK’s SAF mandate on 1 January, which requires at least 10% of all jet fuel used in UK flights to come from SAF by 2030, rising to 22% by 2040. The new plant has already garnered interest from the International Airlines Group (IAG), which invested in Wastefront in January to support its goal of achieving 10 % SAF usage by 2030, in alignment with the UK’s SAF mandate.
Currently, domestic SAF production in the UK falls significantly short of the 1.2 million tonnes needed by 2030 . As IAG’s group sustainability officer, Jonathon Counsell, explained, “To enable aviation to meet the UK’s new mandate and growing SAF demand, there needs to be even greater policy support so manufacturers and innovators like Wastefront can scale new technologies.”
Commercial SAF production in 2026
The Sunderland facility is slated to begin its first commercial phase at the end of 2026, with the second phase launching a year later. Once fully operational, it will be the largest facility of its kind in Europe, processing 10 million end-of-life tyres annually. By 2030, Wastefront aims to operate four large-scale plants collectively producing 128,000 tonnes of oil annually – enough to generate approximately 90,000 tonnes of SAF.
Using an advanced pyrolysis technology, which involves heating tyres without oxygen, the Sunderland facility will convert end-of-life tyres into tyre-derived oil, which will then be refined into SAF. The fully circular process also includes recycling the gases generated during pyrolysis to power the plant’s operations. It also address the issue of how to manage the approximately 55 million tyres that reach the end of their life in the UK each year.
Dual environmental benefits
Wastefront’s CEO, Vianney Vales, emphasised the dual environmental benefits of the project, saying, “Our circular process not only prevents millions of tyres from being discarded in landfills but also provides a scalable, cost-effective pathway for SAF production. This process will also reduce lifecycle emissions by more than 80% compared to fossil fuels.”
With an estimated 4 billion tyres currently sitting in landfills or Wastefront is addressing the global scale of tyre waste and rising demand for SAF. Beyond the UK, it is actively exploring opportunities in the US, the Middle East and Northern Europe.
