Green aviation fuel developer Velocys has raised £7 million through a share placing, having also reached "proof point" on the technology that is driving the ambition.
The company, behind a huge refinery plan for the South Humber Bank at Stallingborough, issued more than 233 million shares at a price of 3p.
Henrik Wareborn, chief executive of the Oxford University spin-out, said: “I am delighted with the level of support Velocys has received from existing and new institutional investors.
“This complements the commitments by Shell and British Airways to co-fund the remaining pre-front end engineering design (FEED) project work to bring the Altalto Immingham biorefinery project to the same state of pre-FEED completion as our Bayou Fuels project in Mississippi.
"As a result we can provide strategic partners with two truly sustainable fuel projects, and a solution that can be deployed widely to decarbonise aviation and heavy goods transport.”
A general meeting at the end of the month is likely to see resolutions passed to support the placing, which has been arranged by Numis Securities Ltd, Canaccord Genuity Group and Peat & Co. It is not being underwritten.
Shell and British Airways have committed £2.8 million to the project, first revealed in December. It would be Europe’s first commercial scale waste to renewable transport fuels plant, with the aim of construction starting in 2021 and production in 2024.
The formal planning application is anticipated "pretty soon", according to Neville Hargreaves, Velocys' vice president of waste-to-fuels who is leading on the Stallingborough development and commercial matters relating to it.
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"This is a useful step on the way to having a bit more funding, and for us as a company to have attracted more investors in," he said.
More than 100 jobs would be created, with the proposal to take hundreds of thousands of tonnes of household waste, otherwise destined for landfill or incineration, and convert it into clean-burning, sustainable fuels for aviation and road transport, with 70 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to regular aviation fuel.
At last month's annual meeting, Velocys chairman Dr Pierre Jungels said it had become an "advance biofuels company" thanks to the "technical proof point reached upon completion of the commercial scale demonstration runs" of two Velocys Fischer-Tropsch reactors, with "strong commercial progress" outlined for the South Humber project, and sister plant in the US.
He said: "Velocys will now leverage all the learnings and experience from running full cycle commercial operations at ENVIA into the two commercial scale biorefinery projects in Natchez and Immingham in collaboration with our financial and technology partners.
"The demand for sustainable jet fuel could not be more obvious. Velocys is in a unique position to offer a de-risked, scalable and executable solution to convert solid waste feedstocks into sustainable jet fuel with a minimal carbon intensity both in the US and in the 海角视频 subject to continued shareholder and strategic partner support."
Just before Christmas Altalto, a subsidiary of Velocys, entered into an option agreement which gives it the right to acquire 80 acres of land off Hobson Way, known as Portlink 180.