UK-based OXCCU is advancing a game-changing one-step power-to-liquids (PtL) process that could dramatically lower the cost of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and accelerate aviation’s path to net-zero, CEO and co-founder Andrew Symes tells Invezz.
In this exclusive Invezz interview, Symes – an Oxford University chemistry graduate with deep experience in climate tech investing at BP Ventures and IP Group – explains how the Oxford spin-out’s novel catalysis is de-risking eSAF production just months after raising $28 million from major aviation and energy players.
With the company’s OX1 demonstration plant at Oxford Airport now operational since 2024 and producing jet-range hydrocarbons directly from waste carbon and hydrogen, Symes argues that innovating on conversion chemistry, rather than relying solely on feedstocks or policy, will drive the economics needed for mass adoption.
He further highlights the strategic involvement of investors like Aramco Ventures, noting that incumbents see a role in the transition to waste-based SAF.
Additionally, Symes predicts that direct CO₂ utilisation pathways will dominate long-term as mandates tighten toward 2050.
Below are edited excerpts from the interview:
Targeting cost parity: economics of one-step PtL
Invezz: The price of Sustainable Aviation Fuel is still 3–6× higher than fossil jet fuel. Your new demo plant at Oxford Airport just started producing real PtL SAF—when do you realistically see OXCCU’s fuel hitting price parity with conventional Jet A-1?
Andrew Symes: Today, advanced SAF is typically around 5–10× the price of fossil jet fuel. Our mission is to bring that down to around 2× fossil jet fuel, which we believe is achievable with the right technology and scale.
Independent third-party techno-economic modelling shows our one-step process can reduce CAPEX by ~50% and cost per tonne by ~25% compared to conventional routes.
At that level, the impact on ticket prices is modest and manageable. Reaching true price parity with Jet A-1 would require further reductions in feedstock and green electricity costs, and increased scale.
Aramco ventures
Invezz: Aramco Ventures just co-led your $28M Series B. How does it feel to have one of the world’s biggest oil companies betting on a technology that could make their core product obsolete?
Andrew Symes: Aramco Ventures became an investor in OXCCU in 2023 and reinvested in the company’s Series B.
The Series B round was co-led by new investors Safran and Orlen, alongside Aramco and other aviation and energy players, including IAG and Eni.
From the beginning, we have wanted to engage with the existing industry.
The partners we work with recognise that aviation needs a scalable solution to reduce emissions, and that they can be part of that solution.
Many of the core capabilities remain the same. The skills required to deliver jet fuel to airports and to use it in aircraft do not change.
Existing refinery, pipeline and tank assets can also play a role in co-processing, transport and blending.
Fossil jet fuel will still be sold during the transition, but technologies like ours allow that system to shift over time towards waste-based SAF.
Scaling SAF: overcoming feedstock and process bottlenecks
Invezz: IATA says we need 450 billion litres of SAF per year by 2050 to reach net-zero. What’s the one bottleneck—hydrogen cost, CO2 supply, policy, or something else—that’s still keeping us from scaling that fast?
Andrew Symes: Feedstock availability sits at the centre of everything because it drives cost.
For HEFA (hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids) SAF, used fats and oils used are clearly limited. For advanced bioSAF, biocarbon waste is difficult to aggregate and therefore, can be costly.
For eSAF, green electricity is the key feedstock, as it drives the cost of green hydrogen.
What is often overlooked though, is how important the processes are that convert these feedstocks into SAF. Unlike HEFA, which is a fairly simple and proven process, advanced SAF and eSAF require new conversion routes.
Innovation to reduce the number of steps and improve selectivity toward jet fuel is critical.
This is what we are focused on at OXCCU. Feedstock availability will always be somewhat of a challenge for SAF compared to fossil fuels, and that is hard to change.
What we can focus on are the conversion processes. That is why our focus is relentlessly on simplifying the chemistry and reducing capital intensity.
Policy and regulation matter enormously because they create demand certainty, but even with strong mandates, SAF will only scale if the economics work.
Invezz: Europe’s ReFuelEU mandate is ramping up aggressively from 2025. Is the regulation moving fast enough, or is it actually now pulling the market faster than technology can respond?
Andrew Symes: ReFuelEU is not a mistake. Aviation needs a solution, and it needs it to start scaling now, not in 2035.
Without early policy support, costs will never come down, and the technology will not be ready when demand arrives.
That said, regulation must remain pragmatic and overly rigid rules around feedstocks risk slowing deployment rather than accelerating it.
Policy should create the market, while allowing technology the flexibility to evolve.
Market momentum: take-off moment for power-to-liquids
Invezz: United Airlines just signed the biggest SAF offtake deal in history with CEMEX for power-to-liquid fuel. Are we finally seeing the “take-off” moment for PtL, or is this still early hype?
Andrew Symes: We are moving out of the hype phase and into early execution. Power-to-liquids is now backed by regulation, sub-mandates, and real offtake interest, particularly in Europe.
That said, this is still early. Building commercial plants takes time, capital and engineering effort.
What will determine success is who can deliver cost-competitive fuel at scale over the next decade.
Invezz: You’ve talked about making jet fuel for “a few pence per litre” at scale. Give us your boldest prediction: what will OXCCU’s production cost per litre be in 2030 and in 2035?
Andrew Symes: Our stated ambition is to reduce advanced SAF from today’s 5–10× fossil jet fuel to around 2× fossil jet fuel, using genuine waste carbon feedstocks and simplified process design.
Future of SAF
Invezz: A lot of SAF today still comes from used cooking oil and animal fats. When do you think direct CO2-to-jet-fuel routes like yours will overtake HEFA as the dominant SAF pathway?
Andrew Symes: HEFA plays a crucial role today, but it is fundamentally constrained by land use and feedstock availability. Just using oils cannot meet long-term demand at scale without serious environmental trade-offs.
We believe CO₂ and/or CO with H2 to SAF via iron-based Fischer-Tropsch will dominate.
The flexibility to work with CO2 directly as well as CO means it is applicable to converting: gasified solid carbon waste, reformed biogas, and CO2 and green H2.
These waste-based pathways are essential for reaching high blending levels in the 2030s and beyond.
As mandates rise towards 2040 and 2050, these routes will become increasingly dominant because they are not limited by the same land constraints as HEFA SAF.
The reason investors engage is that cost and complexity are the real barriers to SAF. Our approach is a simplification of existing routes.
By avoiding intermediates such as carbon monoxide via RWGS or methanol, we can reduce capital intensity and improve hydrogen efficiency, which is where the cost reduction lies.
Technical breakthrough: single-reactor catalyst demonstration
Invezz: Your catalyst does the Fischer-Tropsch and upgrading steps in one reactor. Without giving away the secret sauce—what’s the one breakthrough in the last 18 months that suddenly made investors say “this is real”?
Andrew Symes: Demonstration. We have shown, through our OX1 plant and independent testing, that it is possible to produce jet-range hydrocarbons directly from waste carbon and hydrogen in a single step, without a separate RWGS or methanol stage.
Fuel testing partner Intertek confirmed our fuel sits within the jet fuel range and, after simple hydrotreatment, is comparable to FT-SPK specifications.
This de-risks both cost and complexity. Fewer steps means lower CAPEX, lower energy losses and a more provable pathway to scale.
We have already demonstrated this at our OX1 facility at Oxford Airport, which has been operating since 2024 and has produced samples of synthetic SAF blend components.
That plant provided the data needed to validate the chemistry and inform scale-up.
We are now building OX2, our second demonstration plant, which will operate at a larger scale and produce greater volumes of fuel for testing and certification, ahead of commercial scale plants.
Invezz: If Donald Trump wins again in 2028 and pulls the US out of global climate deals a second time, how damaging would that actually be to the global SAF market?
Andrew Symes: It would slow the US market, but it would not stop SAF globally. What we are already seeing is a divergence.
Europe and the UK have clear blending mandates and increasing revenue certainty; the Middle East and Asia are following suit. While the US outlook is more volatile.
Capital follows visibility. Inconsistent policy makes it harder to finance large infrastructure, but aviation decarbonisation will still move forward across global regions.
Long-term vision: path to lower-carbon flying
Invezz: Last one, big picture: by 2040, will flying commercially be carbon-neutral by default, or will it still be the “guilty pleasure” industry that everyone loves to hate?
Andrew Symes: People are going to keep flying, and demand is likely to grow. The question is whether we choose to build the fuel system that allows aviation to keep delivering its economic and social benefits with a much lower climate impact.
Because of its energy density, aviation will continue to rely on liquid hydrocarbons for decades.
That is why SAF matters. It is a drop-in route to reducing fuel emissions without asking airlines to redesign aircraft or airports.
In the UK, aviation emissions are already higher than those from the electricity supply sector. If we wait until 2035 or 2040 to scale solutions, it will be too late.
We need to start now, bring costs down, and build the supply chain so that lower carbon flying becomes normal, not exceptional.
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