Actually, they aren’t going to exactly remove the cars from the road, but they will be taking the equivalent of 48,000 car’s carbon emissions out of the atmosphere with a new scheme announced today. They are going to be producing their own biofuel. Out of waste that would otherwise have been put into landfill.

British Airways have teamed up with US-based Solena Group to build a sustainable jet-fuel plant that can convert a variety of waste materials, normally destined for landfill, into aviation fuel. The plant will probably be located in east London and BA say that when it is fully up-and-running, it will be able to 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 traditional jet fuel.

What kind of waste? Well, almost anything organic (i.e. made of carbon) can be used – food waste from household kitchens or hotels and restaurants, industrial waste from food manufacturing plants, paper that can’t be recycled and agricultural waste.

“This volume of fuel would be more than twice the amount required to make all of British Airways’ flights at nearby London City Airport carbon-neutral. Put another way, the fuel’s reduction in carbon emissions would be the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road per year.”

They plan to have part of their fleet running on this new fuel from 2014. It is a great vote of confidence from an airline to actually invest in this type of scheme and it comes a short while after KLM announced its new venture in the sustainable biofuel area. A good friend of ours, Jonathan Counsell who is Head of Environment at BA spoke to Sky News a short time ago:

But wait, there’s more

The reduction in carbon lifecycle emissions for the aircraft that use this fuel is not the only benefit. As BA said in their press release:

• The plant will emit oxygen, plus small quantities of nitrogen, argon, steam (water vapour), and CO2. The plant itself will be CO2 neutral.
• The left over gas can be used to produce 20MW of excess electricity for export to the national grid or converted into steam to be used in a district heating system.
• The only solid waste product is an inert vitrified slag material, which can be used as an alternative to aggregates used in construction.
• Through reducing landfill by around 500,000 tonnes per year, local authorities will save £36 million in landfill.
• Four sites in the east of London are among those under consideration for the construction of the bio-jet fuel plant.  The scheme will lead to the creation of up to 1,200 jobs in the area and could reduce significantly local authority landfill tax bills.

- Image by Flickr user caribb