The SAF Podcast

James Hygate, CEO and founder of Firefly, returns to The SAF Podcast for the first time since December 2023 — and a lot has happened. James brings his characteristic blend of technical depth, founder candour, and big-picture ambition to a brilliant wide ranging discussion.   James opens with a comprehensive update on Firefly's progress: the selection of Turkish engineering firm Altaca as thei...

In this episode, Oscar is joined by two guests at the heart of Europe's eSAF scale-up effort: Amy Herbert, Arcadia eFuels, and Thomas Engelmann, KGAL— both key figures within Project SkyPower, the industry coalition to the European Commission to put in place the conditions needed to bring eSAF projects to final investment decision. Amy opens with an overview of Arcadia eFuels and its flagship...

Getting fully behind World Cup fever, SAF Investor is running The SAF World Cup. Gathering experts from different countries, we will be running a knock out style bracket to find the most promising SAF country in the world. Decided by popular vote! Whether it is policies, access to capital, offtakers, feedstock access, infrastructure expertise all these will be key discussion points.  Join for a bi...

In this episode, we sit down with Dan Sutton, CEO and co-founder of Syntholene, to explore their geothermally integrated synthetic fuel production technology currently being developed in Iceland. Dan explains why geothermal energy is such a compelling foundation for eSAF production, how Syntholene's solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) technology — integrated with Iceland's abundant heat...

For the 100th episode of The SAF Podcast, we're joined by Mikala Grubb, Senior Vice President of Technologies, Topsoe — one of the world's leading catalysis and technology companies, whose technology produces an estimated third of all the SAF available globally today. We start with feedstocks — why the constraints on used cooking oil and animal fats are tightening, what a post-2030 feeds...

Adam Forsyth, founder of Longspur Capital joins for the latest episode of The SAF Podcast. A leading voice in clean energy investment, we explore how sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) fits into the broader energy transition — and what it will take to unlock the capital needed to scale it. Adam draws on decades of experience across equity research, corporate finance, and clean energy advisory to unpa...

In this episode, we sit down with Alasdair Lumsden, co-founder of Carbon Neutral Fuels, to explore how taking a screwdriver to a VCR led to his time in tech entrepreneurship, which eventually ended up in the world of sustainable aviation fuel.  Alasdair walks us through the company's Power-to-Liquid e-SAF project, Project Starling — a commercial-scale facility planned for Workington, Cumbria,...

This week's episode sees Vinesh Sinha, CEO, FatHopes Energy, joins Oscar Henderson for a conversation on the SAF Podcast.  Vinesh Sinha dropped out of university in 2007, inspired by a Top Gear episode, and built FatHopes Energy into one of Southeast Asia's most sophisticated sustainable fuel feedstock operations — with a digital traceability platform years ahead of the competition. In t...

In this episode of The SAF Podcast , Oscar is joined by Shubhda Kaushik, managing director & chief executive officer, Alternative Energy Company, to explore what it really takes to move sustainable aviation fuel projects from ambition to final investment decision. Drawing on experience at Standard Chartered, Bain and McKinsey and Maersk, giving her a rounded perspective across finance, strateg...

Noaman Al Adhami, UK Country Head at Alfanar Projects, is this week's guest on The SAF Podcast.  He joins Oscar for a discussion into Lighthouse Green Fuels — one of the UK’s most closely watched sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects. We begin by looking at why Alfanar chose to initially focus SAF production in the UK and the decisions around site selection. We then explore what it takes t...

In this episode of The SAF Podcast, Oscar is joined by Patrick Sieb, Managing Partner at Climate Tech Partners, for a conversation on what it really takes to finance and scale sustainable aviation fuel. From Series A climate tech investing to corporate-startup partnerships and the infrastructure challenges behind SAF production, Patrick shares a practical investor’s view on how promising technolog...

In this episode of The SAF Podcast, Oscar is joined by Nico Nicholas, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeero Group, for a discussion on the commercial and strategic realities of scaling the Hydrothermal Liquefaction SAF pathway. The conversation goes beyond the technical basics to look at how waste-to-fuel projects are financed, how they can be tailored to local infrastructure needs, and why collaboration ac...

In this episode of The SAF Podcast, host Oscar is joined by Maria Whittaker, Corporate Responsibility Officer at Abra Group — the airline group behind Avianca and GOL, serving nearly 70 million passengers across Latin America. Maria unpacks the unique challenges and opportunities of scaling sustainable aviation fuel in a region where aviation provides essential connectivity, fuel costs represent u...

Kenneth Hill, BioCarbon Strategies joins us for this episode of The SAF Podcast as we knee deep in the alphabet soup of North American tax policy.  Ken brings unique insight as a former U.S. Department of Energy financing official who worked on projects like Montana Renewables and Gevo, combined with current experience vetting SAF projects and advising investors on bankability across the US, Canad...

This episode of The SAF Podcast sees Jan Toschka, CEO at Zaffra, join Oscar for a wide ranging discussion on the potential of eSAF and the Power-to-Liquid pathway. Jan brings 27 years of energy sector experience—including leading Shell Aviation as its president—to his role building Zaffra, a 50/50 joint venture between Sasol and Tops. Together, they're leveraging their technology expertise an...

In this episode, we dive deep into the financing challenges and solutions driving the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry forward with Mahesh Roy, Programme Director, SAF at the Green Finance Institute.  Mahesh shares his unique journey from accidental banking career in Australia to leading green finance initiatives across the UK and EU. He explains what makes SAF fundamentally different from...

In this episode of The SAF Podcast, host Oscar sits down with Chris Chaput — a former Northwest Airlines executive, Morgan Stanley investment banker, and airline restructuring specialist — to unpack how DG Fuels is not just developing a SAF project, but a SAF platform. We cover: DG Fuels' gasification-to-Fischer-Tropsch technology and their patented 97–98% carbon conversion efficiency How str...

This week's episode of The SAF Podcast sees Clive Gibson and Connie Lo from FGE NexantECA join Oscar. This episode is a must listen if you want a blueprint of how to develop a SAF project, what separates investable SAF projects from optimistic slide decks. Hot off the back of FGE NexantECA's feasibility study with Fathopes Energy completing. Clive breaks down feasibility as a set of para...

This week Dana Shoukroun, Invest Through Flying is our guest on The SAF Podcast.  The conversation is a wide ranging one covering the cost of compliance, why purchasing SAF now will pay dividends in the future and how growing SAF has to go beyond what is dictated by EU Mandates. We also find out which scientists need lab coats. We move onto the potential of nuclear as an energy source for syntheti...

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 aggr...

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...

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 pr...

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...

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 ap...

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 ye...