British Airways Eyes 'Sustainable' Av Fuel Plant
British Airways, in partnership with the Solena Group, hopes
to establish Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant and plans to
use the low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014. The
new fuel will be derived from waste biomass and manufactured in a
state-of-the-art facility that can convert a variety of waste
materials, destined for landfill, into aviation
fuel.
In a Monday news release, the Solena group sasy the
self-contained plant, likely to be built in east London, will
convert 500,000 ton of waste per year into 16 million gallons of
green jet fuel through a process that offers lifecycle greenhouse
gas savings of up to 95 per cent compared to fossil-fuel derived
jet kerosene. This volume of fuel would be more than twice
the amount required to make all of British Airways' flights at
nearby London City Airport carbon-neutral.
The Solena Group says the project will make further major
savings in greenhouse emissions by reducing the volume of waste
sent to landfill, thus avoiding production of the powerful global
warming agent, methane, and generating 20MW of electricity a year
from renewable sources.
British Airways has signed a letter of intent to purchase all
the fuel produced by the plant, which will be built by the Solena
Group Inc., an advanced bio energy and bio fuels company based in
Washington DC. Four sites in the east of London are among those
under consideration for the construction of the bio-jet fuel
plant. The scheme will lead to the creation of up to 1,200
jobs in the area and could reduce significantly local authority
landfill tax bills. Design, engineering and management services
company ARCADIS is to be the principle consultant on the project,
and is evaluatin potential sites for the plant
Willie Walsh, British Airways' chief executive, said:
"This unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for
realising our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50
per cent by 2050. We believe it will lead to the production
of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene. We are
absolutely determined to reduce our impact on climate change and
are proud to lead the way on aviation's environmental
initiatives."
Dr Robert Do, chairman and chief executive of the Solena Group
said: "The Solena - British Airways BioJetFuel project will
efficiently convert biomass into clean renewable fuels and
electricity and is completely carbon neutral. The plant will
be a state-of-the-art renewable fuel manufacturing facility,
distinct from a standard waste to energy incinerator
facility. It will not produce any polluting emissions or
undesirable by-products."
The Mayor of London has recently set out his vision to save
millions from the city's waste bills. This project could be
part of the solution. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson,
said: "I welcome this fantastic new 'carbon lite' fuel
production facility in London. City Hall has been working
with British Airways and Solena to drive this project forward to
help untap the massive potential to generate cleaner, less
polluting energy from waste, otherwise destined for landfill.
We are working to bring together more organisations in this way to
harvest the capital's rubbish to fuel homes, businesses and even
transport."
ANN's Daily Aero-Term (05.01.24): Say Altitude
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