British Airways and Solena are gaining momentum in their goal of producing sustainable jet fuel with technology partners for their GreenSky London initiative now in place and British Airways confirming its financial commitment, a statement from the United Kingdom carrier’s office in Nigeria has said.
GreenSky London is a project that will see the construction of a state-of-the-art facility to annually convert about 500,000 tonnes of waste normally destined for landfill into 50,000 tonnes of sustainable low carbon jet fuel, 50,000 tonnes of biodiesel, bio-naphtha and renewable power.
Solena’s technology consortium has continued to grow and this includes Solena Fuels Corporation, which will provide the high temperature gasification process that converts waste matter into synthesis gas and the overall integrated biomass gasification to liquids solution.
Oxford Catalysts Group will supply the fisher-tropsch reactors and catalyst which will convert the cleaned synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons, according to BA.
According to the statement, Fluor has started the pre-front end engineering and design for the project.
Fluor is a world leader in project execution and bio-fuel projects, and is providing engineering services to support Solena.
The statement read, “British Airways has committed to purchasing, at market competitive prices, the jet fuel produced by the plant for the next ten years which equates to $500m at today’s prices.
“Barclays has also been appointed as advisor to explore the optimal funding through export credit agencies. A competitive letter of Interest has been obtained from one of the agencies including associated term funding.â€
According to BA, GreenSky London has signed an exclusive option on a site for the facility and consent work for the site has begun.
The airline said more than 150 jobs would be created to operate the facility, as well as 1000 construction positions. The partners aim to have the site operational by 2015.
The Chief Executive Officer, British Airways, Mr. Keith Williams, said, “We are delighted that the GreenSky London project is getting ever closer to fruition. With world-class technology partners now in place, we are well on our way to making sustainable aviation fuel a reality for British Airways by 2015.â€
It also quoted the President and CEO of Solena, Mr. Robert Do, as saying, “Our GreenSky London project will provide clean, sustainable fuels at market competitive prices that will help address British Airways’ sustainability goals.
“The British Airways off-take agreement represents the largest advanced biofuel commitment ever made by an airline and clearly demonstrates the airline’s leadership and vision in achieving its carbon emission reduction targets. We are proud to have created a consortium of world class companies with expertise in the synthetic fuels sector to support our project.â€
The CEO of Oxford Catalysts Group, Mr. Roy Lipski, said, “Oxford Catalysts is pleased to be playing a key role in the enabling of GreenSky London. This project looks set to become a landmark in the development of the sustainable fuels market, both in the UK and worldwide.â€
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