British Airways will invest in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producer LanzaJet's first commercial facility in Georgia, US, and will buy fuel from the plant for a number of flights from late 2022.
The facility will convert sustainable ethanol into SAF, or biojet, using LanzaJet's alcohol to jet (AtJ) process, which can use any source of sustainable ethanol, including ethanol made from non-edible agricultural residues such as wheat straw and recycled pollution. Construction is scheduled to begin this year.
The partnership involves LanzaJet conducting early planning for a potential large-scale commercial SAF biorefinery in the UK.
"With the right support for waste-based fuels, the UK would be an ideal location for commercial-scale LanzaJet plants," LanzaJet chief executive officer Jimmy Samartzis said. And "with the addition of British Airways, LanzaJet now plans to develop a further four larger-scale plants operating from 2025, producing a pipeline of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel made from sustainable feedstocks, to support and enable the global decarbonisation of the aviation sector," he said.
British Airways is building Europe's first commercial waste-to-fuel plant in Immingham, UK, in partnership with UK-based sustainable fuels technology company Velocys.
British Airways' parent company, International Airlines Group, will invest $400mn in SAF in the next 20 years, the company said.
LanzaJet was formed last year, by Chicago-based renewable energy firm LanzaTech with support from Canadian integrated Suncor.

