It comes as part of the UK government’s Advanced Fuels Fund, which provides grants to companies working with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as part of the industry’s aim to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Other successful projects include a SAF plant in Port Talbot which will convert steel mill off-gases into sustainable jet fuel and the early development of a SAF plant using carbon capture and hydrogen made from renewable electricity.

Building on the success of the Green Fuels, Green Skies programme, the five projects will alone produce more than 300,000 tonnes of SAF a year – enough to fly to the moon and back an estimated 60 times.

The successful projects will also slash CO2 emissions by an average of 200,000 tonnes each year once fully up and running – the equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the road.

Transport secretary Mark Harper said: "Using waste or by-products to refuel airliners sounds like a flight of fancy, but thanks to £165 million of government funding it’s going to help us make guilt-free flying a reality.

"It’s exactly this kind of innovation that will help us create thousands of green jobs across the country and slash our carbon emissions."

The announcement comes less than a week after the government announced Virgin Atlantic had won the race to make the first net-zero transatlantic flight next year – powered by SAF.