British Airways has announced that it will start producing jet fuel from landfill waste to reach its target of 50 percent reduced emissions by 2050.
The airline is partnering with biofuels company Solena to construct a waste-to-energy fuel plant in East London that will turn 500,000 tonnes of organic waste into 16 million gallons of jet fuel per year. The fuel will be made by treating the the waste in a high-temperature gasifier to create BioSynGas which is then converted to jet fuel using the Fischer Tropsch process. The plant will also create a by-product of 20 MW of electricity per year and have the added benefit of keeping waste out of landfills.
British Airways is only committing to use a 10 percent blend of the biofuel at this point, a disappointment when you consider the successful test runs of 50/50 bio-jet fuel blends. The airline plans to start using the fuel by 2014.
via Treehugger