Zak Mir caught up with Howard White, Chairman of Hydrogen Utopia, to discuss the company’s strategy and progress in the fast-evolving hydrogen and clean energy space.
Hydrogen Utopia International PLC (LON: HUI) has identified a substantial opportunity in the MENA region, with a particular focus on Saudi Arabia, to deploy its proprietary InEnTec technology for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and hydrogen-derived diesel from waste streams.
Preliminary financial modelling indicates potential internal rates of return in the high teens for projects requiring minimum capital investment of around US$800m per facility. Under the proposed structure, HUI could retain a 10–20% free-carry equity interest, alongside management fee income commencing from the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase.
The strategy is underpinned by expectations of SAF demand growth in the MENA region exceeding a 40% compound annual growth rate through the 2030s, driven by airline decarbonisation targets and a constrained supply backdrop. HUI believes this positioning offers the potential to capture value from a widening global SAF shortfall while leveraging regional scale and policy momentum.
Aleksandra Binkowska, Chief Executive Officer of HUI, commented: "When I started HUI, I believed we would be playing in the EU league, fuelling hydrogen buses and transforming local transport. Today, after years of trials, resilience, and learning, we stand at the threshold of something far bigger, an opportunity to play in the international league alongside the world's largest players: the airlines and the airports. Reshaping one of the biggest industries in the world.
What once was a game of a few tonnes of hydrogen and local pilot projects has evolved into a game of scale, impact, and vision, shaping global, large-scale infrastructure projects. People will always fly. Humanity is driven to explore, to connect, to discover the world, and there is nothing wrong with that. The challenge was never flight itself, but how we power it.
That is why I would like to invite every CEO of the world's major airlines to come and sit down with us, to explore our real, scalable solution to meet the demands of international aviation. I'm confident in what I know to be bold enough to say it.
If aircraft can fly on waste, guilt disappears and responsibility transforms into progress, regardless of what some so-called eco-purists may claim. There is already enough plastic waste on this planet to fuel the world, without asking people to change their lives or sacrifice their freedom.
For the first time, we will be able to say something extraordinary: fly - and you are helping to save the planet."
Howard White, Chairman of HUI, commented: "I am delighted and very excited by this long-overdue recognition of the potential of SAF, which could unlock exponential opportunities across the MENA region. What has surprised us most is the sheer scale of the shortage - far greater than we ever anticipated. Even more striking is the widespread lack of understanding about what SAF is and how it is fundamentally reshaping global air travel. The growth potential is extraordinary, with a CAGR of over 40% projected over the next five years, and strong momentum sustained over the next 20 years. I have recorded an interview with Zak Mir, to be released today, to explain why so many still fail to grasp its impact.
I believe mandated technologies often go largely unnoticed.
SAF isn't widely known because nothing about flying changes. The plane looks the same, the ticket costs the same, and the passenger doesn't choose the fuel; thus, no one notices it exists."