It is reported that UK based airline Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with New Zealand's low carbon fuel specialist LanzaTech to develop aviation fuel from waste gases from the steel industry for use on a number of routes within two to three years.
According to Virgin, the low carbon aviation fuel has just half the carbon footprint of the standard fossil fuel alternative. The partnership will see waste gases from industrial steel production being captured, fermented and chemically converted using Stockholm based Swedish Biofuels' technology for use as a jet fuel. The production process recycles waste gases that would otherwise be burnt into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
According to LanzaTech, Swedish Biofuels has developed technology for the production of alternative aviation fuels and has demonstrated this technology under a project funded by the US Government Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
During this project Swedish Biofuels has used its technology in the production of fully synthetic 100% biological aviation fuel from a wide variety of non food biological feedstocks including lignocellulosic biomass.
Virgin Atlantic said that it plans to schedule flights using the new fuel within three years on its routes from Shanghai and Delhi to London Heathrow, as LanzaTech and partners develop facilities in China and India. The technology is currently being piloted in New Zealand, a larger demonstration facility will be commissioned in Shanghai this year, and the first commercial operation will be in place in China by 2014.
Following successful implementation, Virgin says that a wider roll out could include operations in the UK and the rest of the world.
LanzaTech estimates that its process could be applied to 65% of the world's steel mills, allowing the fuel to be rolled out for worldwide commercial use. The energy company also claims that this process can apply to metals processing and chemical industries, growing its potential considerably further.
Virgin Atlantic said that it will be the first airline to use this fuel and will work with LanzaTech, Boeing and Swedish Biofuels towards achieving the technical approval required for using new fuel types in commercial aircraft. A demonstration flight with the new fuel is planned in 12 to 18 months.
Ms Jennifer Holmgren CEO of LanzaTech said that "This technology will enable airlines to dramatically reduce their carbon footprint by reusing gases that would otherwise have been emitted directly into the atmosphere."
Dr Ausilio Bauen, Head of Bioenergy at Imperial College London, said that "The recycling of waste gases that would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere to produce transport fuels, in a process such as the LanzaTech one, provides an excellent opportunity to reduce emissions associated with the use of petroleum fuels in transport."
(Sourced from www.waste-management-world.com)l
