Rolls-Royce & Equilibrion: Creating SAF from Nuclear Energy

“Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is an alternative fuel made from non-petroleum feedstocks that reduces air pollution from air transportation,” says the US Department of Energy.

Another way to reduce air pollution is by incorporating nuclear energy, the International Atomic Energy Agency states that it accounts for “25% of all low-carbon electricity".

Equilibrion, a nuclear consultancy, and Rolls-Royce SMR have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on a technical and economic assessment.

This memorandum aims to provide a better understanding for nuclear powered SAF using small modular reactors (SMRs).

Creating SAF for Rolls-Royce

The Rolls-Royce SMR is designed to provide clean, reliable cost-competitive energy using its ‘factory-built’ SMR technology.

The heat and electricity produced by a Rolls-Royce SMR power station are well suited to industrial processes, such as hydrogen production and synthetic fuel synthesis, that require steady, reliable energy inputs.

“We expect to see a lot of innovation and energy directed at creating sustainable fuel over the next 10-20 years and we are here to support this growth in any way we can,” said Dr Dave Smith when he was Director of Central Technology at Rolls-Royce, now National Technology Advisor for the UK Government.

“Despite the challenges of affordability and scalability, we believe that Sustainable Aviation Fuels are the only solution to decarbonise long-haul aviation.” 

Rolls-Royce believes that decarbonising aviation cannot be achieved by any single country or company and that global collaboration is essential. 

The company works closely with airline customers, industry peers, competitors and partners in the oil and gas sector to advance sustainable aviation solutions.

Many Rolls-Royce aircraft engines, including the Trent XWB and the Trent 7000, are already capable of operating using blended SAF. 

Rolls-Royce expects that its newer engines could potentially operate on 100% SAF and is currently carrying out testing to verify this capability. 

Successful verification could support lifting the current regulatory cap of a 50% fuel blend.

Rolls-Royce is also helping to drive investment in sustainable fuel technologies and support their commercial viability. 

This includes collaboration with the public sector and the oil and gas industry to expand the availability of sustainable aviation fuels, while ensuring that its engines can be certified to operate with higher blends of SAF in the future.

Equilibrion’s nuclear input

Equilibrion is a UK-based project development and technology company focused on creating new commercial opportunities for nuclear energy in hard-to-decarbonise industries. 

Its proprietary modular system, Eq.flight, is designed to produce SAF at commercial scale while delivering lower lifecycle emissions than many alternative technologies, making it well suited for deployment in the UK and internationally.

Eq.flight produces e-SAF using electricity and heat through a process known as power-to-liquids (PtL). 

This approach will contribute to the UK’s SAF Mandate targets. 

By improving overall system efficiency, Eq.flight can produce more SAF with less energy, helping enable domestic e-SAF production while supporting job creation and economic growth.

“Aviation will only meet its climate commitments if SAF becomes available in large, dependable volumes," says Caroline Longman, Director at Equilibrion.

"Nuclear‑derived fuel production offers the reliability, scalability and low carbon intensity needed to deliver that future.

“Delivering nuclear‑enabled SAF also creates long‑term, high‑quality employment, each Eq.flight facility has the potential to generate around 10,000 skilled local jobs over its lifetime.”

With support from a grant from the Department for Transport through the Advanced Fuels Fund, Equilibrion and its partners are working to deliver a world-leading UK-based demonstration of the Eq.flight system by 2030. 

The project aims to confirm both the technical feasibility and the commercial viability of the technology.

The collaboration also explores how the Eq.flight SAF production system could be powered by the clean and reliable electricity generated by a Rolls‑Royce SMR power plant. 

Together, the technologies have the potential to produce more than 160 million litres of SAF per year per SMR, which could meet around one-third of the UK’s 2040 power-to-liquids SAF target.

Reaching sustainable aviation targets

Aviation is said to be one of the fastest growing sources of global GHG emissions yet, with SAF supply meeting less than 1% of global demand.

The UK has targets for aviation and sustainable fuel, wanting at least 22% of aviation fuel to be SAF by 2040 with a growing demand for meaningful capacity increase.

“Our SMR technology is designed to provide clean, affordable and dependable low‑carbon energy, exactly the qualities required to unlock large‑scale Sustainable Aviation Fuel production,” says Alan Woods, Director of Strategy and Business Development for Rolls-Royce SMR.

“The technical and economic assessment completed with Equilibrion will enable them to demonstrate how nuclear can power one of the most ambitious decarbonisation challenges in aviation. ”

However, to meet these goals, large volumes of low-carbon energy are required, a need that nuclear energy technology could help to meet.

The partners are set to collaborate to develop a deeper understanding of the technical and economic case for global SAF production, one that can be optimised with the incorporation of nuclear energy.

The memorandum aims to support national and international net zero goals, as well as strengthen energy security via domestic fuel production and aim to create SAF availability at mass volumes.