A plan to produce sustainable aviation fuel using nuclear energy is being explored after Equilibrion and Rolls‑Royce SMR signed a memorandum of understanding to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the project, Air Cargo Week reported.
The study will examine how small modular reactors can be used to power the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The reactor technology developed by Rolls-Royce SMR is designed to generate clean and reliable electricity and heat through factory-built nuclear units. These energy outputs are considered suitable for industrial processes that require steady power supply, such as hydrogen production and synthetic fuel manufacturing.
Equilibrion, a UK-based project development and technology company, is working on ways to expand the use of nuclear energy in sectors that are difficult to decarbonise. Its proprietary system, known as Eq.flight, is designed to produce sustainable aviation fuel at commercial scale while lowering lifecycle emissions.
The Eq.flight system will produce e-SAF using electricity and heat through a process known as power-to-liquids. The company said the technology could help meet targets set under the United Kingdom’s sustainable aviation fuel mandate while improving efficiency and reducing the energy required for production.
The project is supported by funding from the UK Department for Transport through its Advanced Fuels Fund. Equilibrion and its partners plan to build a demonstration project in the United Kingdom by 2030 to confirm the technical and commercial feasibility of the system.
Under the agreement, the two companies will explore how the Eq.flight production system can be powered by the energy generated from Rolls-Royce small modular reactors. If developed at scale, the combined technology could produce more than 160 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel annually from a single reactor unit, which could meet about one-third of the United Kingdom’s power-to-liquids SAF target for 2040.
The aviation sector is among the fastest-growing sources of global greenhouse gas emissions, while sustainable aviation fuel currently accounts for less than 1% of total aviation fuel use worldwide. The United Kingdom aims for sustainable aviation fuel to make up 22% of its aviation fuel consumption by 2040.
The two companies said the partnership will help examine how nuclear power could support large-scale SAF production. They added that future commercial deployment could strengthen domestic fuel production, improve energy security and create thousands of skilled jobs while supporting global efforts to reduce emissions from aviation.
