British Airways to use landfill to fuel planes.

BA to use landfill to fuel planes.

I was excited to hear that biofuel may be finally making its way into the civil aviation industry thanks to British Airways shaking hands with the Solena Group. I was also pleased to discover that at last the abandoned Coryton Refinery in Thurrock (which is sited a few miles from our office) will be in use for this project.

Reports so far are a little sporadic, and not all of them agree on the facts, but according to most sources the project (named Greensky) will be up and running by the end of 2015. Greensky will involve BA joining forces with the Solena Group to manufacture biofuel for use by their airline. Around 500,000 tonnes of general waste (that which usually ends up in landfill) will be transported to the Coryton site, where it will be converted into 50,000 tonnes low carbon jet fuel which BA is committed to buying in its entirety for 10 years (although every source seems to say a different figure). It will also create more than 150 new jobs, over 1000 construction placements, provide 20mw of energy straight to the National Grid and be the equivalent or remove 150,000 cars from the road.

Although it appears that the fuel will only be enough for a very small percentage of BA’s flights, the airline has insisted that these are just the figures for the very first output, and that with time and development the project should easily be creating enough biofuel for BA’s entire fleet.

The project has been in the works for many years and experienced many delays, but it looks like it might finally become a reality. Despite the lack of information right now, watch this space.

News Reports:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 … lant-essex
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8515620.stm

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Robert Clements
Robert Clements
Articles: 286