OXCCU, an Oxford-based carbon-to-value company converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), has received €2 million through the ATI Non-CO2 Programme.
The ATI Programme is delivered in partnership with the Aerospace Technology Institute, Department for Business and Trade and Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). OXCCU is the first SAF company to receive grant, which will be used to investigate the non-CO2 effects of its synthetic crude ‘OXFUEL’.
“This ATI Programme funding not only enables us to advance our technology but also supports our ambition to lead the industry in producing cleaner aviation fuels with a reduced contribution to global warming,” said Andrew Symes, CEO of OXCCU.
This grant awarded under the ATI Non-CO₂ Programme aligns with a wider pattern of 2025 investment activity in Europe’s sustainable aviation fuel and e-fuels ecosystem.
Across the continent, similar startups are progressing from pilot to commercial scale – such as Spark e-Fuels (Germany), which raised €2.3 million to build its first e-fuel pilot plant; Catalyxx (Spain), which secured €3 million to enhance its sustainable chemicals and SAF R&D; and Brineworks (Netherlands), which obtained €6.8 million to scale its direct-air-capture technology for e-fuel production.
EU-Startups has featured OXCCU several times. The company was profiled in June 2023 in the article London-based OXCCU jets off with €20.6 million to transform CO₂ into sustainable aviation fuel, highlighting its initial funding and commercial ambitions. It was later included in the July 2024 feature From labs to market: 10 promising biotech startups based in the UK, which positioned OXCCU among emerging UK life-science and climate-tech innovators.
Most recently, in September 2025, EU-Startups reported on its €23.7 million round in Oxford University spin-out OXCCU raises €23.7 million to scale waste-carbon-to-fuel process, underscoring the startup’s progress from academic spin-out to a notable player in Europe’s sustainable aviation fuel sector.
“Non-CO2 effects are an area of emerging science that could have substantial implications for climate strategy in aviation. This funding will provide critical insights as we work to validate and scale our OXFUEL product,” added Symes.
Founded in 2021, OXCCU, a ClimateTech spin-out company from the University of Oxford, is developing novel catalysts and reactor designs to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons with high conversion and selectivity for use as fuels, chemicals and plastics.
The company is headquartered in the UK, with operations at Begbroke Science Park, Oxford, and London Oxford Airport.
The total funding cost of €3.4 million is a result of the co-investment between industry and the government through the Department of Business and Trade. The project runs from July 2025 to June 2027, aiming to better understand how to minimise the non-CO2 effects of OXFUEL, and supporting the broader goal of developing cleaner fuels with lower carbon intensity.
Supported by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme, the project will explore how this innovative new SAF produced with OXCCU’s novel F-T catalyst can potentially reduce the warming associated with the non-CO2 effects of burning hydrocarbon fuel in a jet turbine, in addition to the effect of the CO2 emissions.
The focus will include soot particles, which can cause cloud formation at altitude and therefore impact global warming, though the amount of warming (or cooling) these particles cause is dependent on the conditions and subject to ongoing research.
By focusing on cleaner fuel development, OXCCU seeks to position itself as a leader in the UK’s push towards a 10% SAF inclusion in jet fuel by 2030.
OXCCU’s SAF, marketed under the brand OXFUEL, leverages a novel iron-based Fischer-Tropsch catalyst which can work directly with CO2. It has high selectivity towards producing jet fuel range hydrocarbon syncrude in a single exothermic step, from which refined jet fuel can easily be made.
Compared to other processes, the company says this means fewer steps and less hydrogen input per amount of jet fuel, resulting in lower capital and operating costs.
By validating its technology at the OX1 demonstration plant at Oxford Airport in 2024, the company is focused on refining the lowest-cost pathways via direct hydrogenation of CO2, eliminating the complex RWGS step or the multiple stages associated with methanol production.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/11/oxford-spin-out-oxccu-secures-additional-e2-million-as-first-saf-company-to-receive-ati-non-co%E2%82%82-grant/
