Rivan has raised £25 million (€28.6 million) from IQ Capital and Plural, to scale European synthetic natural gas (SNG).

The new funding will contribute to a 15MW plant in Wiltshire, UK. Known as Project Starwell, it is to be the largest SNG plant in Europe and the first time SNG has ever been injected into the UK gas grid. The funding will also scale production in the UK to produce up to 50MWs a year in hardware, and will go to R&D, including direct-air-capture, electrolysis, reactor and solar, to challenge fossil-fuel pricing within the next two to three years.

Starting with SNG, Rivan aims to rapidly make synthetic fuels cheaper than fossil-fuel for heavy industrial cases like steel, cement, chemicals and aviation. This is particularly relevant in Europe, where 60% of all energy is imported, exposing the continent to huge cost and supply concerns. Most recently, the war in the Middle East, doubling wholesale gas prices and placing countries like the UK, France, Germany and Spain into a state of energy emergency.

To achieve greater scale and lower cost synthetic fuels, Rivan makes use of domestic production, designing and manufacturing all hardware in the UK. Last year, Rivan raised £10 million (€11.4 million) in seed funding from Plural, Patrick & John Collison, and other investors, to bring Rivan’s technology to scale. In that time, Rivan built the UK’s largest SNG plant and is on track to produce the cheapest SNG.