,

The UK's Plans To Decarbonise the Aviation Industry and Diversify its Economy

,

Given how much fuel airlines burn each year, fuel shortages may become common. Unfortunately so too are the carbon emissions the aviation industry contributes to our atmosphere each year. However, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) may provide a solution to both problems. The UK government estimates that the production of SAF could generate £700m-1.7bn annually while creating 11,000 jobs.

The United Kingdom recently announced a shortlist of companies that will receive funding as part of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan, the Green Fuels, Green Skies competition to advance the production of SAF. Chicago-based LanzaTech, was among the companies, who will receive funding to pioneer new technologies, converting materials such as household waste, alcohol, carbon from the atmosphere, and sewage into SAF at commercial scales, offering emissions savings of more than 70% compared to the use of conventional fossil jet fuel.

Here is a Link to the full news release.

More specifically,

  • LanzaTech’s Project DRAGON, which stands for Decarbonizing and Reimagining Aviation for the Goal Of Netzero, will undertake the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of a facility in Port Talbot, South Wales, that will produce over 100 million litres per year of ATJ Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK).

  • The feedstock for the facility will be waste-based, low-carbon ethanol, procured from a variety of waste sources, and the facility will have the ability to also use ethanol produced from local steel mill waste gases via LanzaTech’s gas fermentation platform.

  • The ATJ-SPK produced will provide >70% GHG emission savings versus traditional jet fuel. Using a 30% blend target, the 100 million litres of ATJ-SPK will yield about 330 million litres per annum of blended SAF.

This will be used by UK-based airlines, including British Airways, and longtime partner, Virgin Atlantic. In October 2018, the first batch of LanzaTech jet fuel, made by recycling waste industrial gases, was used on a Virgin Atlantic commercial flight from Orlando to London Gatwick. This facility will be the UK’s first commercial-scale project to implement the LanzaJetTM Alcohol-To-Jet (ATJ) technology.

  • LanzaTech UK has also partnered with cleantech company Carbon Engineering (CE) on a first-of-a-kind project to create sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) out of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Project AtmosFUEL will investigate the feasibility of a large-scale, commercial air-to-jet facility in the UK that will produce more than 100 million litres of SAF each year. Find that news release here.

Here is a link to the full news release, "LanzaTech helps advance the United Kingdom’s leadership in sustainable aviation with the production of sustainable aviation fuel." As we countdown to COP26, there is a renewed sense of urgency to finding the solutions to not only reducing our emissions but removing them from the atmosphere. These companies offer prime examples of the technology that works, the companies that are already implementing the SAF, and the results to get to net-zero.

Daniel Cherrin

DANIEL CHERRIN |served the City of Detroit as its Communications Director and the Press Secretary to Detroit Mayor, Ken Cockrel, Jr. He is a public relations + affairs specialist who just happens to be a lawyer, with 20 years of experience providing senior public relations and government relations’ counsel to organizations on state and federal regulatory and legislative matters, as well as issues affecting corporate and individual reputation, crisis management and the media. Daniel is the founder of NORTH COAST STRATEGIES (Est. 2005) an independent public relations consultancy that combines the best of a big agency with hands-on executive-level experience and support. As a signatory company to the United Nations Global Compact, we are dedicated to addressing issues around human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption. We are also focused on redefining your brand and changing the conversation to create an impact.