The SAF Podcast

This week Natasha Mann, Future Energy Global (FEG) comes back on the Podcast to discuss her busy last few years, we wrap up SAF in 2025 and look forward to what to expect from 2026. 
We begin by looking at all the deals FEG have signed over the last two since since its founding in 2024. Offtakes with corporates and airlines, the importance of voluntary scope 3 customers to industry scale, how aggregating demand is a crucial component of scaling SAF production and availability globally, and how this can only grow if the supply chain for the scope 1 emissions is also in place. 
Natasha gives her rating out of 10 for the SAF industry in 2025, shares some of her highlights from the year and the headwinds that the industry had to work against, especially in the US. We also attempt to pin her down on her favourite region in 2025. Have to listen to find out what she chose. 
We end the episode with a look at 2026, what we can expect from FEG in 2026 and her expectations for global industry development in the year ahead. Natasha also gives us her New Year's resolutions for 2026.  
You can catch more of Future Energy Global at SAF Investor London on the 24th-25th February, so if you are a producer, airline, corporate customer is a great place to connect with their team. Find out more here: https://www.safinvestor.com/event/148588/saf-investor-london-2026-2/

In this episode of The SAF Podcast, Oscar is joined by Mike Fulton, Project Aircraft Engineer at FedEx and widely known as “The SAF Guy,” for a deep-dive conversation on how one of the world’s largest cargo airlines is approaching sustainable aviation fuel at scale.
With more than 700 aircraft, making it the world's largest dedicated cargo fleet. Operations in over 220 countries, and aviation responsible for around 80% of its carbon footprint, FedEx sits at the sharp end of aviation decarbonisation. Mike explains how SAF fits into FedEx’s broader goal of achieving carbon-neutral operations by 2040, alongside fleet modernisation, operational efficiency and the use of durable carbon solutions.
The discussion explores FedEx’s recent SAF offtake agreements in the United States, including partnerships at Los Angeles, Chicago O’Hare and Miami, and why higher SAF blending percentages deliver both greater carbon reductions and more favourable economics. Mike also offers rare insight into the realities of SAF pricing, fuel cost sensitivity, and why long-term offtake agreements alone have not been enough to unlock widespread project finance.
Listeners will gain a candid perspective on why brownfield conversions are currently outperforming greenfield SAF projects, how supply-chain risk is managed, and the growing importance of carbon “insets” and environmental attributes for corporate customers.

We kick off 2026 on the podcast with a great conversation with Nicolas Guillaume and Louis Lammertyn from BookBetter. 
The platform integrates sustainability costs directly into flight pricing, offering travelers 100% SAF options and alternative transport modes like trains when more sustainable. Unlike traditional airline booking systems that add SAF as an optional extra at checkout, BookBetter prioritizes transparency from the first search, using third-party registries to verify environmental claims and provide customers with detailed certificates.
The discussion delves into critical industry issues including the psychological barriers of SAF pricing, the importance of additionality in carbon reduction claims, and why current booking platforms inadvertently penalise airlines making sustainability efforts.
Wishing everyone a great 2026 in what is set to be another crucial year for SAF market development.

The final episode of 2025 brings a fresh perspective as The SAF Podcast welcomes its first Academic, Alon Lidor from the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly the National Renewable Energy Laboratory).
Alon shares his fascinating journey from aerospace engineering to sustainable aviation fuel research, including his work on solar-driven thermochemical processes at ETH Zurich and his current role at NLR. The conversation explores his groundbreaking research on chemical looping technology for syngas production, which promises to overcome traditional reverse water-gas shift reaction limitations and significantly reduce downstream separation costs in SAF production.
A highlight of the episode is Alon's insights from interviewing over 80 industry stakeholders through the Department of Energy's Energy I-Corps program. He reveals findings about the SAF industry's biggest challenges, including funding and bankability concerns that outweigh technical barriers, and the underestimated complexity of scaling pilot plants to commercial production.
The discussion examines the crucial relationship between academia, national laboratories, and industry in advancing sustainable aviation fuel technologies. Alon explains how national labs like NLR provide essential infrastructure and expertise to help early-stage companies de-risk their technologies, offering capabilities that would be prohibitively expensive for startups to build independently.
Listeners gain valuable insights into techno-economic analysis, regional policy differences between US incentive-based approaches and European mandate-driven frameworks, and the timeline for Alon's three-year research project developing next-generation SAF production technology.
Thank you so much to everyone that has listened over the last year and some exciting things to come in 2026!
To find out more about the SAF Investor London conference check out the website here: https://www.safinvestor.com/event/148588/saf-investor-london-2026-2/

On this week's episode of The SAF Podcast Chris Hancock, Avioxx joins Oscar to share their waste-to-fuel technology and their UK project development strategy. 
Chris begins by sharing his journey from fintech entrepreneur to cleantech innovator, explaining some of the parallels between the early days of fintech and today's nascent SAF industry.
We also dive into Avioxx's off-grid approach integrating Fischer-Tropsch reactors with solid oxide fuel cells, enabling the plant to generate its own electricity and potentially achieve an 80% reduction in electricity costs. The result aims to tackle the two hardest cost drivers in SAF—purchased power and hydrogen balance—while building a real circular economy around waste.
Integrating AI and digital infrastructure is a fulcrum of Avioxx's expansion to accelerate design timelines, reduce costs, and mitigate risks. Chris explains how this feeds into their UK focused expansion plans from a small scale demonstrator, to a mid-scale plant producing 5,000 tonnes per year, up to a 32,000 tonne per year facility consuming 300,000 tonnes of waste each year.
We finish by discussing capital raising, the pre-seed investment from Trailfinders and the current ongoing raise for their Series A-B rounds. Chris explains the types of capital they are looking to attract in the balancing of equity and senior debt. 
Check out the full episode to find out more on whatever site you prefer to frequent.