British Airways joins Project Speedbird for cleaner aviation fuel

The project is supported by the British government with a £9 million grant from the Advanced Fuels Fund (AFF).

British Airways (BA) on Friday announced a partnership with clean technology pioneer Nova Pangaea Technologies under a clean fuel initiative called Project Speedbird. The project is supported by the British government with a £9 million grant from the Advanced Fuels Fund (AFF).

The project partners include Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT), LanzaJet and British Airways (BA).

Of the £9 million grant, NPT receives £7.5 million and LanzaJet the remaining £1.5 million.

Teesside-based NPT, is engaged in developing advanced biofuels for producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) while LanzaJet is a leader in ethanol-to-SAF technology.

The Speedbird project will produce 102 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) annually and help reduce 230,000 of tonnes CO2 emissions every year - the equivalent of approximately 26,000 British Airways domestic flights, according to the airline.

BA said the government funding came after the airline and its parent, International Airlines Group, invested millions of pounds into the project.

The project proposes to use a combination of NPT’s innovative technology, which converts agricultural waste and wood residue feedstocks into second-generation biofuels such as ethanol, and LanzaJet’s proprietary technology that converts ethanol into SAF.

Ethanol will be initially processed into SAF using LanzaJet’s Alcohol to Jet (ATJ) plant in Georgia, USA. Project Speedbird will have its own larger ATJ facility in the UK by 2027. The project will gain attain full capacity by 2028.

British Airways will be purchasing all the SAF produced through Project Speedbird. UK’s clean fuel policy requires airlines to use at least 10 per cent of jet fuel made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030.

“With support from the Government, and in partnership with British Airways and LanzaJet, we can now accelerate our next phase of development and the commercialisation of our technology, to help take the UK one step closer to becoming a global leader in SAF,” Sarah Ellerby, CEO of Nova Pangaea Technologies, said.

“The UK has the potential to become a leader in the production of SAF, and this pioneering project is one step closer to this becoming a reality and a big moment for British Airways and UK SAF production more generally, Carrie Harris, director of sustainability at British Airways, said.

Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT) is a cleantech company that has created a revolutionary process, converting wood residues and agricultural waste into advanced biofuels and biochar, some of which are then used to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), a crucial tool in the effort to decarbonise flight.