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Cranfield partners with CirculAIRity

Cranfield has begun the first of multiple projects with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) specialists CirculAIRity, a scale-up focusing on the use of SAF in aviation.

Image by Fahroni / copyright Shutterstock

Working with Cranfield’s Centre for Digital Engineering and Design, CirculAIRIty’s vision is to make flying net zero through an industry-first power-to-liquid (PtL) development solution that is location, technology, and energy source agnostic, providing efficiencies not yet seen in the industry. This starts with the development of a digital engineering platform, working with Cranfield’s Centre for Digital Design and Engineering.

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This work comes after Cranfield and CirculAIRity signed a Memorandum of Understanding, forming the basis for the two organisations to work together on multiple projects in future.

Above: Farnborough International Airshow in 2024:- Alex Chikhani CEO and Co-Founder, CirculAIRity, Dame Sue Gray Chair, CirculAIRity, Professor Sir Iain Gray, Cranfield University, Helen Webb, CMO, CirculAIRity and Dr Michael Parmar, COO and Co-Founder, CirculAIRity.
Courtesy Cranfield University

Professor John Erkoyuncu, Head of the Centre for Digital and Design Engineering at Cranfield University, said: “This work leverages the cutting-edge research done in our Centre to make an impact where first of a kind innovation is needed.

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"We’re delighted to support CirculAIRity’s mission to offer SAF production at scale by designing and developing a digital platform to enable interoperability in engineering modelling for better decisions. The aim is to improve productivity and reliability across the supply chains in the maturing PtL SAF sector.”

Alex Chikhani, CEO and co-founder of CirculAIRity and a Cranfield University alumnus, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Cranfield University to work towards our joint aims. To reach those goals we need to strategically shape future skillsets, advance humanity’s understanding of energy transition, and deliver a commercially attractive sustainable aviation fuel programme globally.”

CirculAIRity is a company with a vision to achieve net zero for the aviation industry through the use of sustainable aviation fuel. Through his background in logistics and as a fuels subject matter expert for the RAF, and business experience in multiple scale-ups, Alex Chikhani and CirculAIRity have a clear vision of a future where SAF plays a fundamental part in aviation.

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