Oxford-based startup OXCCU, which has developed an innovative new process to create Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) has been crowned the winner of the 2026 Startups 100 Sustainability Award. The award honours businesses that demonstrate innovative and impactful sustainability practices.
OXCCU is decarbonising the aviation industry, a sector known for its harsh environmental impact, by using world-leading technology.
The revolutionary startup has also ranked 4th in the 2026 Startups 100 Index powered by Sage, the UK’s longest-running index of promising new businesses.
What is OXCCU?
- Founders: Andrew Symes, Dr Jane Jin, Dr Tiancun Xiao, Dr Benzhen Yao, and Professor Peter Edwards
- Year founded: 2021
- Read OXCCU’s Startups 100 Index profile here
How OXCCU stands out in the sustainability space:
The UK startup is tackling the need to find alternative means of maintaining our standard of living without relying on fossil fuels, by using cutting-edge technology to make waste carbon usable.
OXCCU’s OX1 demonstration facility at London Oxford Airport has already logged 1,000 hours producing liquid fuel, with high conversion rates and excellent selectivity for SAF.
Following this success, the business secured £20.75m in Series B funding at the end of last year, to further scale its sustainable fuels and technologies.
Why is OXCCU’s technology revolutionary?
The team has developed a breakthrough single-step process that combines captured CO₂ with green hydrogen to create jet-fuel-range hydrocarbons.
Its patented iron catalyst converts CO₂ and CO directly into liquid hydrocarbons in a single reaction, avoiding intermediate steps and minimising byproducts. This translates into lower capital costs, lower operating costs, and more competitive prices for SAF.
What are OXCCU’s future goals?
OXCCU aims to produce 10,000 tonnes of SAF per year before 2030 (for context, a Boeing 787 transatlantic flight uses around 50 tonnes) while exploring applications beyond aviation in chemicals and plastics.
This could lower the environmental impact of fuel-guzzling industries.
From lab breakthroughs to commercial demonstrations, OXCCU is proving that waste carbon doesn’t have to be a problem; it can also be the solution.
OXCCU’s co-founder and CEO, Andrew Symes, says: “Being recognised in the Startups 100 Index reflects the momentum we’ve built this year.
Securing our 21M Series B funding, starting the build of our second demonstration plant OX2, and growing the team has given us strong foundations to move forward.
With strong investors alongside us, the focus now is on proving the technology at a larger scale and building the foundations for a pathway that can make a meaningful difference to future aviation fuel production.”
Editor of Startups.co.uk, Zohra Huda, comments:
“We are incredibly proud to name OXCCU as this year’s Sustainability Award winner. Their mission to create a low-cost, low-emission route to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) addresses one of the most urgent challenges in the global climate agenda.
Aviation and petrochemicals are notoriously difficult to decarbonise, yet OXCCU offers a genuinely scalable alternative to fossil fuels, proving that breakthrough science and commercial ambition can go hand-in-hand.”
