CATAGEN Attends Launch of the Northern Ireland Defence Growth Deal

Great to see the launch of the Northern Ireland Defence Growth Deal today (Wednesday 22nd April 2026) — a significant step forward for the region’s role in supporting the UK’s defence, innovation and industrial capability. Pictured here is our CEO and Co-Founder, Dr Andrew Woods, with the Defence Minister Luke Pollard, Air Marshall Sean Reynolds CB CBE DFC CCMI MIoD, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly BL MLA and Invest NI CEO Kieran Donoghue at this morning’s event.

What stands out is the growing focus on dual-use capability — when defence application and commercial aerospace application for sustainable aviation fuel meet to unlock wider economic and societal value.

At CATAGEN, we are seeing this convergence accelerate.

Energy is no longer just a commercial or environmental issue — it is now central to energy resilience and supply chain risk, and therefore to national and economic security.

As global systems become more volatile, there is a clear need for:

– modular, manufacturable solutions
– deployment-ready technologies
– the ability to leverage existing industrial capability

This is the business of the future with technologies that strengthen resilience in
aviation and mobility, critical infrastructure, regional and national energy systems.

CATAGEN has the ability to produce synthetic fuels from renewable energy (wind and solar) and waste biomass to produce SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) and e-diesel via their modular decentralised platform – find out more 👉 https://lnkd.in/egfZd_P8

Find out more about NI Growth Deal – https://lnkd.in/dgTZzYrd

About CATAGEN
CATAGEN delivers mission-driven innovations to clean and decarbonise the energy sector. The company is developing scalable, exportable and licensable technologies to accelerate the global energy transition, increasing energy security and resilience. 

CATAGEN provides patented Green Emissions Testing services to global automotive manufacturers. Its expertise in the mobility sector and global emissions standards has led the company to develop decentralised fuel production technologies including: Biohydrogen Reactors and E-Fuel reactors (SAF and e-diesel).

BIOHGEN Reactor – converting waste biomass to clean H₂.   

E-FUEL GEN Reactor – ‘Drop-in’ or blended synthetic fuels can be produced such as e-diesel, e-kerosene, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

An award-winning SME, CATAGEN has received multiple recognitions for innovation and growth. CEO Dr Andrew Woods received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Sustainability Award (2023); the company ranked 5th in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Ireland (2024), winning the Impact Award; placed 151st in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA (2025); and was selected for the UK Tech Nation Future Fifty programme for late-stage tech scale-ups.