Equilibrion and Rolls-Royce SMR have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct a joint technical and economic assessment of nuclear-powered sustainable aviation fuel production, with grant support from the UK Department for Transport’s Advanced Fuels Fund. The collaboration centres on integrating Rolls-Royce SMR’s factory-built Small Modular Reactor technology with Equilibrion’s Eq.flight system — a proprietary modular power-to-liquid platform designed to produce e-SAF at commercial scale with lower lifecycle emissions. A single Rolls-Royce SMR, according to the announcement, could support output of more than 160 million litres of SAF per year — meeting around a third of the UK’s 2040 power-to-liquid target under the country’s SAF mandate, which requires 22% of all aviation fuel to be SAF by that date.
The pairing addresses a fundamental constraint in power-to-liquid SAF production: energy. PtL processes — which combine green hydrogen with captured CO₂ via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to produce synthetic kerosene — are energy-intensive and require a continuous, stable power input that intermittent renewables cannot reliably provide without large-scale storage. SMRs generate consistent baseload heat and electricity at the scale industrial hydrogen production and fuel synthesis require. The energy supply problem sits at the centre of why eSAF projects struggle to reach bankable status — lenders need certainty on input costs and operating continuity that variable renewable energy profiles complicate.
Equilibrion is already progressing a UK-based demonstration of Eq.flight, targeting delivery by 2030 alongside project partners. The MOU with Rolls-Royce SMR extends that work into a formal assessment of how nuclear energy optimises the economics of the full production system — not only the electricity input but the high-grade heat that SMRs generate as a by-product, which can reduce energy losses across the hydrogen and synthesis steps.
A modular nuclear-PtL system that can be replicated across sites — each SMR supporting 160 million litres of annual output — offers a scalability argument that site-specific renewable installations typically cannot match on the same footprint.
The UK mandate framing is significant for the project’s commercial case. With SAF currently accounting for less than 1% of global aviation fuel demand, the gap between today’s supply and the UK’s 2040 obligation is substantial. A modular nuclear-PtL system that can be replicated across sites — with each SMR supporting 160 million litres of annual output — offers a scalability argument that site-specific renewable energy installations typically cannot match on the same footprint.
Future commercial deployment is expected to support thousands of high-skilled UK jobs, according to both companies. The immediate next step is completing the joint technical and economic assessment scoped under the MOU — the outcome of which will determine whether the collaboration progresses toward a full development agreement.
