The SAF Podcast

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. 

In this episode of The SAF Podcast, host Oscar Henderson sits down with Hamid, Francis and Sergio from Nexen Biosystems to explore one of the most unconventional and interesting sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) feedstocks emerging today: tequila bagasse.With what seems like every celebrity wanting to start a tequila brand. The market over recent years has boomed, creating an abundant amount of year round feedstock.  Tequila production is tightly concentrated by denomination rules, so residues are steady, local, and available at favorable terms because they’re a disposal headache for distillers. Agave bagasse is pre-cooked and pressed during tequila making, which can reduce pre-treatment intensity compared to raw crop waste.We dig into Nexen's strategy: 18 months of R&D at a Canadian lab to tune pre-treatment and conversion steps, followed by a Mexico-based pilot to validate logistics, contracts, and costs at scale. Along the way we talk policy reality—strong Canadian support for clean-tech research, Mexico’s push to manage tequila waste and align with global SAF goals.We also discuss the challenge of raising capital in the R&D stage before building a demonstration and pilot plants. Finding investors that are comfortable with the risk profile all aspects of developing a SAF facility is crucial for Nexen as investors bring much more to the table than just capital. Sit back, grab a tequila (think of the feedstock) and listen to this episode and find out about the potential of tequila bagasse as a feedstock and how Nexen are planning on utilizing it for SAF production. 

In this episode of The SAF Podcast, host Oscar Henderson welcomes back Gorka Penalva, Exolum, to discuss the company’s latest milestone — the launch of its new SAF blending facility at Redcliffe Bay in the UK. Gorka shares how Exolum is transforming its legacy fuel infrastructure to support a low-carbon future and reveals the vision behind what they’re calling the “SAF Superhighway.”Exolum is taking bold steps forward in the SAF market, moving beyond the traditional wait-and-see approach that has characterized much of the industry. As an independent storage company operating over 2,000 kilometers of pipeline infrastructure that handles 40% of the UK's jet fuel, they're uniquely positioned to accelerate SAF adoption. Their decision to self-finance the Redcliffe Bay blending facility demonstrates a proactive approach to building the infrastructure needed to meet growing demand and regulatory mandates.This episode delves into the practical challenges of adapting post-war infrastructure for modern sustainable fuel blending, the benefits of pipeline transportation versus road transport for both emissions and cost, and the critical role of both national and local government support in developing SAF infrastructure. Gorka shares insights on Exolum's year-long development process, their plans to expand blending facilities across multiple UK import locations, and how they're leveraging experience from their operations in Spain, Amsterdam, and Germany.Gorka explains why the team chose internal financing to accelerate timelines, how a two-year concept-to-commission journey unfolded, and where the “SAF superhighway” goes next.Policy and logistics converge here. National mandates frame the destination, while local leaders help clear the path. We discuss why both levels of government matter, what reliable imports mean for producers, and how pipelines can cut emissions and reduce congestion versus road transport. This equates to nearly 200,000 trucks. Nose to tail that would be enough to stretch the entire coastline of Great Britain. Looking ahead 12–24 months, Exolum is mapping additional blending sites, aligning with import corridors, and engaging stakeholders, with external capital on the table for future phases. If you care about scaling SAF supply, reducing logistics emissions, and giving airports dependable access to blended fuel, this conversation lays out a grounded plan to get there.If you want more of the back story on Exolum, listen to our first episode from earlier in the year here: https://www.safinvestor.com/podcast/146997/the-saf-podcast-exolum-throwing-saf-a-pipeline/