Around 1,000 construction jobs will be created during construction of the world’s first plant to convert waste that would otherwise be headed to landfill into aircraft fuel.
Solena Fuels has announced that it will build the Greensky London plant at the Thames Enterprise Park near Thurrock, Essex, after British Airways confirmed its support with a deal to buy some of the fuel produced. Construction on part of the former Coryton oil refinery which was closed by Petroplus last year could start later this year or early in 2015 with completion by 2017.
The project will take some 570,000 tonnes of post recycled waste to turn it onto 120,000 tonnes of clean burning liquid fuels which will include 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel that British Airways has agreed to buy each year. Initial engineering design has been completed by project engineer Fluor and the next phase of engineering is under way.
Solena will use its patented high temperature plasma gasification technology to convert the waste into synthetic gas. The gas will then be converted into liquid hydrocarbons using third party technologies including cleaning and conditioning of the gas, a Velocys Fischer-Tropsch conversion process, hydrocracking and electric power production.
Robert Do, president and CEO of Solena Fuels, said: “We anticipate starting construction of the site in approximately 12 months after all the requisite permits and agreements have been obtained. We are looking forward to successfully building GreenSky London and partnering with British Airways on additional facilities in the United Kingdom.”
Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways’ parent company IAG, said: “We are always striving to reduce our impact on climate change and this first-of-its-kind project marks a significant step for the aviation industry. “ British Airways expects to make carbon savings equivalent to taking 150,000 cars off the road.
