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Global Association for ESG
27 Dec 2022
The UK’s Department for Transport announced that it has awarded more than £80 million to a series of projects aimed at producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
The UK’s Department for Transport announced today that it has awarded more than £80 million to a series of projects aimed at producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from sources including household and commercial waste, and industrial waste gases.
The two largest grants went to LanzaTech, a carbon capture and transformation (CCT) company, for DRAGON, a commercial scale plant in South Wales that will convert steel mill off-gases into ethanol and then use alcohol-to-jet technology to produce SAF, and Velocys, a UK-based sustainable fuels technology company, for its Altalto Sustainable Aviation Fuel project in Immingham, UK, which will convert black bin bag waste into SAF. When fully operational in 2028 and 2026, the Velocsy and LanzaTech projects will produce 37 kt/y and 79 kt/y of SAF, respectively.
Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, said:
“We must accelerate deployment of SAF plants in the UK. We’re excited that Project DRAGON has been recognized for its potential to deliver results and create new jobs while producing the volumes of SAF greatly needed by a sector that has limited options today.”
The funding came from the UK's £165 million Advanced Fuels Fund, which was established to aid in the development of SAF manufacturing facilities in the country. The fund was introduced this year in conjunction with the UK's "Jet Zero" initiative, an aim to achieve net zero aviation by 2050. The plan anticipates 2019 as the peak year for aircraft emissions, with a reduction goal of more than 60% by 2050.
Additional grants from the fund announced today included £11 million to alfanar Energy for an 87 kt/y SAF plant in the Industrial Cluster at Teesside that is anticipated to be operational in 2028, £16.8 million to Fulcrum BioEnergy for an 83.7 kt/y plant in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, that is anticipated to be operational in 2027, and an additional £2.5 million to Velocys for a demonstration plant for the conversion of carbon dioxide into
The five initiatives, according to the Department for Transport, are anticipated to create more than 300,000 tonnes of SAF yearly while lowering emissions by an average of 200,000 tonnes.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said:
“Using waste or by-products to refuel airliners sounds like a flight of fancy, but thanks to £165 million of government funding it’s going to help us make guilt-free flying a reality.”
(Source : ESG Today)
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