CATAGEN has secured commercial debt financing to establish a new division focused on sustainable aviation fuel technology. The funding helps the Belfast company move from late-stage development into commercial production.

CATAGEN is headquartered in the Titanic Quarter, Belfast, and was founded more than a decade ago by Dr Andrew Woods and Professor Roy Douglas as a spin-out from Queen's University Belfast research. The company builds technology to cut carbon and other emissions, works with a wider supply chain across Northern Ireland and the UK.

The debt financing carries a guarantee from UK Export Finance, which is intended to help CATAGEN reach more overseas customers. Woods, who is chief executive and founder, said the funding also strengthens the company's intellectual property position and international growth plans.

The new division builds on ClimaHtech Green Flight, which produces small modular units that make sustainable aviation fuel with very low carbon emissions. The units can be deployed across different sites and expanded as demand grows, and the unit was introduced with a signed term sheet committing Ryanair and Shell Aviation Ireland to offtake fuel from its first project.

Conventional sustainable aviation fuel plants tend to be centralised, capital-intensive and slow to deploy, a supply bottleneck that the modular approach is designed to ease. CATAGEN has also hosted 170 senior executives from the Vinci Airports network at its Belfast campus to demonstrate the technology.

Alongside the fuel push, CATAGEN continues to expand its Green Emissions Testing business, which helps vehicle manufacturers and industrial customers meet emissions standards in global markets. Its partners include ROUSH, Ducati, Ryanair, Shell Aviation Ireland, Vinci Airports and Loganair.

For the sector, the financing points to growing commercial momentum behind decentralised sustainable aviation fuel production in Northern Ireland as airlines and airports look for more flexible ways to secure supply.

Source: Dealroom / Business Cloud / SimpliFlying