UK-based waste-to-fuel business Wastefront has started construction on a £100m tyre-to-fuel facility at the Port of Sunderland in north-east England.
The project is a significant step in the UK’s push for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production. It will launch its first phase at the end of 2026 and the second a year later.
Once fully operational, the plant will process 10 million end-of-life tyres annually, making it the largest facility of its kind in Europe, converting them into tyre-derived oil for refining into SAF and other sustainable fuels.
Spain-registered International Airlines Group (IAG) was the first European airline to aim for 10% SAF usage by 2030 and in January made an undisclosed investment in Wastefront.
With around 55 million tyres reaching the end of their life per year in the UK, Wastefront’s fully circular process will therefore address a pressing waste issue and create economic value while supporting sustainability in fuels.
The Sunderland facility, the UK’s first fully circular tyre-to-fuel plant, utilises an advanced heating process without oxygen, pyrolysis technology, to convert the end-of-life tyres.
Wastefront’s system is self-sustaining, recycling the gases generated during pyrolysis to power its operations. By 2030, Wastefront aims to operate four large-scale plants, collectively producing 128,000 tonnes of oil annually, enough to yield approximately 90,000 tonnes of SAF.
The UK SAF mandate, introduced on 1 January 2025, requires at least 10% of all jet fuel used in flights to come from sustainable feedstocks by 2030, rising to 22% by 2040.
However, domestic SAF production remains significantly short of the target of 1.2 million tonnes needed by 2030, with financing and scaling challenges holding back development. In 2024, SAF production reached 1.250bn litres, doubling the amounts produced in 2023, but this represented just 0.3% of global jet fuel use.
Read more: Is UK SAF mandate achievable?
The International Air Transport Association estimates that SAF could contribute around 65% of the reduction in emissions needed by aviation to reach Net Zero in 2050.
