Velocys has welcomed about £4.9 million of funding to offer the next development phase of a waste-to-sustainable jet fuel project that this company is developing in the United Kingdom with Shell and British Airways.
As part of the funding package a grant of £434,000 has been secured from the Department for Transport (DfT) under the Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (F4C).
The upcoming stage is to include detailed pre-front end engineering and design study and site permitting activities that is financed by a combination of the F4C grant and £4.5 million committed by the industry partners including Velocys.
It is among the many efforts across the world to rein in aviation emissions as this sector takes off in tandem with rising incomes with the developing world.
The aviation sector has agreed to check airline emissions at 2020 levels with capability of airlines to offset emissions above regulated levels by buying carbon credits from designated environmental projects.
Reduced emission or biofuel sources continue to remain quite costly amidst low levels of production.
The Velocys team is making attempts to develop the engineering and business case for the construction of a first plant in the U.K.
Subject to a final investment decision, expected in the initial half of 2020, the plant will take hundreds of thousands of tonnes per year of post-recycled waste, destined for landfill or incineration, and transform it into clean-burning, sustainable fuels, the company said.
The jet fuel produced will be used by British Airways.
It is expected to deliver over 70 per cent greenhouse gas reduction and 90 per cent reduction in particulate matter emissions compared with conventional jet fuel. This would contribute to carbon emissions reductions and local air quality improvements around major airports.
