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Accelerator success stories

How an Accelerator start up secured a major Government grant

The Department of Transport has given a grant to an Accelerator business. Sophie Zienkiewicz, the co-founder of Carbon Neutral Fuels Ltd (CNF) is an entrepreneur supported by our Manchester hub.

Only set up in 2022, CNF is a fuel technology company that aims to produce sustainable fuels for hard-to-decarbonise industries, including the aviation and maritime sectors.

Helping the UK Government’s fight to reduce carbon emissions

By using ground-breaking technologies in clean hydrogen and carbon dioxide removal, CNF aims to make creating synthetic fuels easier and more efficient to supply (such as providing 750,000 litres/year of Jet A-1 sustainable aviation fuel). This will help to phase out fossil fuels and drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the process.

A major monetary award

The UK Department of Transport announced that CNF – in consortium with io Consulting and Mission Zero Technologies – has been awarded £1.38m from ‘Window 2’ of their Advanced Fuels Fund competition. This major award will support the development of the consortium’s ‘Advancing Sustainable Aviation via Power-to-Liquid and Direct Air Capture’ (ASAP-DAC) project and is a significant win for such a new business, showing the power of Sophie’s business idea and how far she’s come in such a short time.

The Accelerator difference

Sophie has been assisted all the way by our brilliant Manchester Accelerator team, Jess Grocutt (Enterprise Acceleration Manager) and Adam Clayton (Local Enterprise Manager).

"The support and guidance that NatWest has given me has been essential in getting to this point. I want to say a particular thank you to Jess, who is truly inspirational is what she does, making the hub a great place to learn and encouraging us to share ideas with the other entrepreneurs."

Sophie Zienkiewicz

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