Nova Pangaea Technologies has completed an endurance trial campaign at its demonstration facility in Teesside, United Kingdom, validating continuous production of bioethanol from woody residues for use in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the company said, according to energynews.pro.
The trials were conducted as part of the Speedbird programme, which is being carried out with British Airways and LanzaJet and supported by the UK government through the Advanced Fuels Fund.
Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA process converts materials such as wood chips, sawdust and wheat straw into bioethanol. The ethanol produced through this process cannot be used directly as aviation fuel and must undergo further processing using LanzaJet’s Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology to produce certified SAF.
The process also produces biochar as a by-product. Nova Pangaea said the biochar stores carbon and allows the overall process to be described as carbon negative.
The trial campaign was designed to demonstrate that the process could operate continuously and reliably for periods representative of commercial operations. Nova Pangaea said this validation was an important step in giving investors confidence before a decision is taken on building the company’s first commercial plant.
The wider Speedbird programme aims to establish several bioethanol production plants in the UK to support a domestic SAF supply chain.
The company is currently led by chief executive Stewart Stewart, who took up the position on January 13, 2026. He succeeded Sarah Ellerby, who had led the company at least until November 2022. Gerald Koch is chairman of the board.
The technology is also intended to provide an alternative source of raw materials for SAF production. The industry currently relies heavily on used cooking oil, but this resource is considered insufficient to meet the aviation sector’s growing demand for SAF.
Nova Pangaea’s approach uses residual plant-based material and is designed to process different types of woody and agricultural residues. The company did not specify the exact material used during the latest trial campaign.
The successful continuous production trials at Teesside mark a technical milestone for the Speedbird programme. However, Nova Pangaea has not provided a timeline for moving to commercial-scale production, with the next major step expected to depend on an investment decision for the first industrial-scale plant.
