BA to run passenger jets on biofuel

British Airways has gone into partnership with Solena, an American company that specialises in generating biofuel. The joint project they are engaged in is known as Green Sky and aims to produce jet fuel from biowaste, which in this instance will be landfill, which would otherwise have gone to a landfill site outside of London.

Airlines are going to be hit particularly hard by tough new emissions regulations brought in by the EU that will come into force in 2012. According to the new rules, the airlines will be charged for every tonne of CO₂ they emit over 2005 levels. BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh also went a step further by declaring in January 2009 that BA would cut its emissions by 50% by 2050.

Solena’s plant would kill two birds with one stone, as though it would need 1500 tonnes of waste to fuel it every day, with soaring landfill taxes, firms would pay to offload truckloads of waste. Solena’s plant is innovative because it uses plasma torches to vapourise the waste fed into the plant, and gathers the carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas that is emitted (syngas). By using a plasma torch they can burn the waste at 1400 °C, which is the most efficient temperature and avoids the process getting clogged by ash and tar, which happens in low temperature operations.

The syngas will be converted into liquid jet fuel by the Fischer Tropsch process; at full capacity the plant should be capable of producing 16.4 million gallons of jet fuel per annum. This fuel would then be blended with conventional jet fuel. Some of the gas would also be used to fire a turbine, which would provide all the electricity that the plant would need, making it self-sufficient, with any excess electricity being fed into the national grid.

However, Solena still has yet to get planning permission for the plan, which calls for a 16 acre site. BA has already agreed to take the fuel for a decade, but they do not have a stake in the plant itself. Other airlines will be watching with interest as this offers them an opportunity to combat rising emissions, caused by growing demand for international travel.

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