British Airways has joined hands with US-based Solena Group to establish Europe’s first sustainable jet-fuel plant and plans to use the low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet as of 2014.

The new fuel will be derived from waste biomass and manufactured in a state-of-the-art facility that can convert a variety of waste materials, destined for landfill, into aviation fuel, said its top official.

Willie Walsh, British Airways’ chief executive, said the unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for realising our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.

'We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene,' he remarked.

'We are absolutely determined to reduce our impact on climate change and are proud to lead the way on aviation’s environmental initiatives,' he added.

The self-contained plant, likely to be sited in east London, will convert 500,000 tonnes of waste per year into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel through a process that offers lifecycle greenhouse gas savings of up to 95 per cent compared to fossil-fuel derived jet kerosene.

Mervat Alfy, Country commercial manager for British Airways in Egypt said, 'We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and this is one of the many initiatives we are pursuing to reach our goal of reducing our net carbon emissions.'

'This initiative of the fuel’s reduction in carbon emissions would be the equivalent to taking 48,000 cars off the road per year,' she noted.
 
The project will make further major savings in greenhouse emissions by reducing the volume of waste sent to landfill, thus avoiding production of the powerful global warming agent, methane, and generating 20MW of electricity a year from renewable sources.-TradeArabia News Service