Hydrogen Utopia International (LSE:HUI), which converts non-recyclable waste plastic into hydrogen and advanced fuels including jet fuel and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), has signed a Master Services Agreement with io consulting (energy) UK LLP.
London-based io is an engineering consultancy offering front-end loading and strategic advisory across energy, chemicals, resources and decarbonisation, and operates as a joint venture between McDermott and Baker Hughes.
Under the agreement, io will apply its capital value process to guide HUI's waste plastic-to-hydrogen and waste plastic-to-SAF projects from initial feasibility through to the technical and commercial definition needed to support investment decisions.
The engagement centres on HUI's UK SAF opportunity, covering funding routes, financing options and engagement with stakeholders, partners and government programmes. It follows HUI's announcement on 17 August that it secured a UK licence from InEnTec for its proprietary PEM (Plasma Enhanced Melter) gasification technology, opening the route to SAF production from non-recyclable waste plastics.
The UK government has designated SAF a strategic priority, backing its Department for Transport SAF Mandate with a £219 million Low Carbon Fuels Fund announced in June, of which £93 million is earmarked over the next two years for SAF production capacity.
HUI intends to pursue funding under these programmes as its UK SAF proposition develops.
"Their experience as project architects across complex energy developments will be valuable as we advance our UK SAF opportunity and wider advanced fuels portfolio," said Duncan Snelling, HUI's chief technical officer.
io's CEO Imran Esmail said the firm's role is to help HUI "build the level of project definition needed to support sound investment decisions and constructive engagement with partners and stakeholders."
News Intelligence what this means for the company
Hydrogen Utopia has engaged io consulting, a McDermott–Baker Hughes joint venture, to guide its UK waste-plastic-to-SAF project through to investment decision, covering technical definition, funding routes, and stakeholder engagement. The move follows the company's August licence of InEnTec's PEM gasification technology for UK SAF production, and positions HUI to pursue the UK government's £219 million Low Carbon Fuels Fund (£93 million allocated to SAF capacity over two years). This is a pre-investment advisory engagement, not a capital commitment or technology breakthrough.
The engagement signals HUI is advancing toward a funding decision on its £800 million capex UK SAF facility, but remains a pre-revenue, early-stage developer dependent on securing external capital and regulatory approval. The advisory contract itself does not reduce execution risk or validate the commercial viability of the waste-plastic-to-SAF conversion pathway.
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