The Times: Bosses stay positive while braced for the curveballs

Sarah Ellerby is chief executive of Nova Pangaea Technologies, based in Redcar, which produces bioethanol from agricultural waste and wood residue as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel and last year secured investment from International Consolidated Airlines Group, the parent of British Airways, and a £9 million government grant to bring into commercial production its patented low-carbon process.

Ellerby, 48, wants to maintain the positive momentum she achieved last year and will complete a further round of fundraising this year. But she hopes for more clarity from the government on how much sustainable aviation fuel it will require airlines to use, as well as what minimum price it will guarantee the product will fetch.

This will help to reassure private investors over the viability of the technology, with full production plants costing north of £1 billion to build. The UK needed to get its skates on, she said, “but I think we are at a bit of a turning point”.