Report: Qantas to announce FT synthetic jet fuel joint venture with Solena Group
02 January 2011
The Guardian reports that the Australian airline Qantas will this month announce a deal with Solena Group Inc. to build the world’s second commercial-scale plant to produce jet fuel from waste for its aircraft. In February 2010, British Airways, in partnership with Solena, will establish Europe’s first plant for sustainable jet-fuel and plans to use the low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014. (Earlier post.)
In November 2010, Solena Group signed a letter of intent with Rentech, Inc. for the use of Rentech’s proprietary Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthetic fuel technology in Solena’s BioJetFuel project. (Earlier post.)
The Guardian reports that Solena is also in negotiations with easyJet, Ryanair and Aer Lingus about building a plant in Dublin, although this project is less advanced.
The BA-Solena plant in London will convert more than 500,000 metric tonnes of waste biomass feedstock into synthesis gas (BioSynGas) every year, using Solena’s proprietary plasma gasification technology. The BioSynGas will then be processed by Rentech’s Fischer-Tropsch technology into 16 million gallons of sustainable synthetic jet fuel (BioJetFuel) and nine million gallons of BioNaphtha. The facility will also export more than 20 megawatts of baseload renewable power to the grid after powering the entire facility with clean electricity.
The waste will come from food scraps and other household material such as grass and tree cuttings, agricultural and industrial waste. The Guardian reports that it is thought the Qantas plant, to be built in Australia, will be similar.
Ryanair?? Does this mean that 2011 is going to see O'Leary recant his position on climate change? Wonders will never cease...
Posted by: Scatter | 03 January 2011 at 08:32 AM