LanzaJet has formally opened its pioneering Freedom Pines Fuels ethanol to sustainable aviation fuels facility in Soperton, Georgia. While SAF production currently is based around feedstocks such as waste oils and fats, LanzaJet says its ethanol-based alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) technology is the world’s first viable next-generation SAF technology capable of scaling production to the levels needed to decarbonise aviation. It will use feedstocks that include agricultural waste, municipal solid waste, energy crops and captured carbon from industrial processes. Under construction since 2022, production at Freedom Pines is due to start this quarter and at full capacity the facility will produce nine million gallons of SAF and  one million gallons of renewable diesel a year. Among LanzaJet’s backers and customers for the fuel are All Nippon Airways and British Airways, and is a partner with BA in a SAF production facility project in the UK.

“This is a historic milestone in a long history of firsts for LanzaJet, the United States and the SAF industry globally,” announced LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis at the opening. “Between feedstock versatility, efficiency and economics that enable scale in the US and globally, we stand ready to meet aviation’s decarbonisation goals established at the United Nations and country ambitions, such as the US SAF Grand Challenge.”

The Grand Challenge, which was launched in 2021 by the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and US Department of Agriculture, calls for a supply of at least three billion gallons of SAF annually by 2030.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to harnessing the full potential of SAF as we continue to build a strong economy that is sustainable, resilient, competitive and keeps rural places thriving,” said US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who attended the opening of Freedom Pines Fuels. “As we transition to SAF, this will help American companies such as LanzaJet corner the market of a valuable, emerging industry, while revitalising rural communities like Soperton with agriculture front and centre in the effort. LanzaJet’s facility will help accelerate the SAF industry and provide new economic opportunities for producers for a more sustainable future.”

LanzaJet, whose technology was developed by LanzaTech and the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) and claims to reduce GHG emissions by more than 70%, has secured investment both nationally and internationally. Shareholders include International Airlines Group (IAG), LanzaTech, Mitsui & Co, Shell and Suncor Energy, and has attracted investment from the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Breakthrough Energy, British Airways (BA) and All Nippon Airways (ANA).

The Freedom Pines facility is fully funded and has committed offtake agreements for all the fuel produced over the next 10 years. The company says it will have created more than 250 jobs and generate an estimated $70 million in annual economic activity for the local economy.

“As we start up the plant, we will continue to refine our technology, while launching our efforts to advance new sustainable fuels projects globally,” said Samartzis.

LanzaJet will use the same AtJ technology on ‘Project Speedbird’, a second-generation SAF production facility being developed by Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT) in north-east England. Backed by British Airways and its parent IAG, construction of the new plant is expected to begin in 2025 and, through its patented REFNOVA process, NPT will convert woody and non-food derived agricultural wastes into ethanol, which will then be turned into SAF by the LanzaJet process. The facility, which is planned to be built by 2027 and at full capacity by 2028, will produce 27 million gallons of SAF per year, all of which will be purchased by BA.

Last November, the project was awarded £9 million ($11.2m) in funding under the UK government’s Advanced Fuels Fund competition.

“The Freedom Pines project acts as the blueprint for using LanzaJet’s innovative ethanol to SAF process technology here in the UK, starting with ‘Project Speedbird’, and shows how quickly the US is moving ahead,” said British Airways CEO Sean Doyle.

Added Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG, which has committed to flying on 10% SAF by 2030: “The LanzaJet ethanol-to-jet fuel plant in the US is a demonstration of how government support and investment in green technologies can help make aviation more sustainable. At IAG, we look forward to bringing LanzaJet’s technology to the UK, with Nova Pangaea, to help the UK meet its target of five SAF plants in construction by 2025.”

Photo (LanzaJet/British Airways): Opening of the LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuel facility in Soperton, Georgia

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

• Linkedin

International Airlines Group (IAG), parent company of Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL, is making a £4.4 million ($5.6m) investment in UK cleantech company Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT), which is developing technology to convert agricultural waste and wood residue feedstocks into second-generation bioethanol that can then be processed into sustainable aviation fuel. IAG says the investment is in addition to an existing commitment of $865 million in future SAF purchases and other investments, with agreements in place for 250,000 tonnes of SAF that represent 25% towards its target of one million tonnes by 2030. The new investment will progress the development of NOVAONE, NPT’s first waste-to-fuel commercial-scale production facility. Construction at a site in North-East England is expected to begin later this year, with the facility producing biofuels by 2025. IAG says it is seeking to secure further UK SAF supply ahead of the UK government’s SAF mandate due to be introduced from 2025.

The mandate requires at least 10% jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030, representing 1.2 million tonnes (1.5 billion litres) of fuel. IATA estimates total global production in 2022 to have been a maximum of 450 million litres so, points out IAG, global supply would have to triple just to meet the UK’s mandate. Therefore, facilities such as that which NPT is planning to construct will be vital in meeting this demand, says IAG, which is planning to harness NPT’s technology to support the decarbonisation of the other airlines in its group.

“Sustainable aviation fuel is the only realistic option for long-haul airlines to decarbonise, which is why investment in this area is so critical,” commented Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG, the first European group to commit to the use of 10% SAF by 2030. “And we are not just buying SAF, we are willing to invest in developing the industry, but we need governments in the UK and Europe to act now to encourage further investment.”

NPT’s technology is feedstock agnostic, which de-risks the supply chain and future proofs the production of second-generation ethanol, says the company. Residues from sawmills and forestry operations will come from UK sawmills and include sawdust and other wood trimmings. Agricultural waste, including wheat straw and corn stover, are mostly left on the fields after harvests and used for fodder or landfill materials. NPT’s REFNOVA process also produces the co-product biochar, a natural carbon sink that can be used as soil enhancement.

Commenting on the IAG investment, NPT’s Chief Executive, Sarah Ellerby, said: “This is a transformational milestone and a real endorsement of the work we are doing. We are delighted to be adding IAG to our shareholder register.

“Our facility will be the UK’s first commercial plant of its kind and it will play a crucial role in decarbonising the aviation sector, as well as providing local employment opportunities. We are confident in beginning construction later this year and producing second-generation biofuels by 2025.”

NPT first struck a partnership with IAG subsidiary British Airways and LanzaJet in 2021, announcing the launch of Project Speedbird, in which NPT would be providing bioethanol feedstocks to be processed into SAF for the airline by a dedicated SAF plant using LanzaJet’s patented technology. With British Airways intending to purchase all the SAF, the facility is expected to produce 82,000 tonnes of SAF per year and so reducing net lifecycle CO2 emissions by 230,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of around 26,000 BA domestic flights.

Photo: British Airways

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

• Linkedin

British Airways has agreed to accelerate the Project Speedbird large-scale sustainable aviation fuel production initiative it created in 2021 with LanzaJet and Nova Pangaea Technologies. As part of the agreement, the airline’s parent company IAG will invest in the next phase of development work, with construction to begin possibly as early as next year and production to start in 2026. Located in the north-east of England, the project would transform agricultural and wood waste into 102 million litres of SAF per year, which BA would offtake to help power its flights. Meanwhile, the airline has also launched enhanced online platforms for its corporate and individual customers to calculate flight carbon emissions and mitigate their climate impact. Customers have previously been able to use the airline’s carbon offsetting tool to purchase offsets and sustainable aviation fuel but in a partnership with climate tech company CHOOOSE, the new CO₂llaborate programme will give them more control over the amount of SAF versus verified carbon offsets they wish to purchase.

Project Speedbird was granted nearly £500,000 ($570,000) by the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition to fund an initial feasibility study for the early-stage development of the project. With the work now completed, the next stage of development is now ready to proceed, says British Airways, and the partners have applied for an additional grant from the DfT’s Advanced Fuels Fund.

“SAF is in high demand but in short supply across the globe and so it is essential that we scale up its production as quickly as possible,” commented the airline’s Director of Sustainability, Carrie Harris. “With further investment and continued government support, Speedbird will be a key and pioneering project in the production of SAF here in the UK.”

Once in operation, the facility would be the first in the UK to utilise independently verified sustainably-sourced agricultural and wood waste to produce SAF. The SAF will be developed using a combination of technologies based on Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA proprietary patented process of converting the waste into bioethanol and also biochar, a carbon-rich charcoal-like material left over after processing and considered a natural carbon removal method. Biochar can be used to amend and restore impoverished soils by better retaining nutrients required for plants to grow, and by filtering healthy water for accelerated crop growth, delivering a circular economy for the agriculture industry. Biochar can replace fertilisers that use fossil fuels as their feedstock and removes carbon from the atmosphere, with the potential to generate high-integrity carbon credits.

“This project will deliver the first end-to-end, sustainable value chain from agricultural and wood waste to SAF in the UK,” said Sarah Ellerby, CEO at Nova Pangaea Technologies, which has a pre-commercial plant expected to be in commercial production in 2023. “The support from British Airways is a vote of huge confidence in our technology and will accelerate its commercialisation.”

Added Harris: “The biochar carbon removal opportunities are another important aspect of this impressive, innovative project that can contribute to our net zero action.”

LanzaJet’s proprietary and patented alcohol-to-jet technology will be utilised to convert the bioethanol to produce SAF and renewable diesel.

The SAF produced would reduce net lifecycle emissions by 230,000 tonnes a year, claim the partners, the equivalent emissions of around 26,000 British Airways domestic flights. Overall, the facility would have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 770,000 tonnes a year through the additional production of biochar and 11 million litres of renewable diesel.

“The UK is a critical market in the decarbonisation of the aviation industry and this partnership brings together the full value chain from agricultural and wood waste to finished SAF and use by British Airways. As the UK sits at an inflection point in its quest to decarbonise, Project Speedbird represents historical significance with an eye towards the future,” commented Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of LanzaJet. The airline is already an investor in LanzaJet, which last month announced it had received a $50 million grant from Breakthrough Energy towards funding of its Freedom Pines Fuels SAF facility in Georgia, US.

Under a multi-year agreement with energy company Phillips 66, BA is already using supplies of SAF produced at the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery, also in north-east England, to power a number of its flights from London Heathrow, and the airline’s customers can contribute towards purchase of the SAF to reduce their flight emissions.

Under its partnership with CHOOOSE, the CO₂llaborate programme has new platforms for corporate and individual customers. Individuals can take climate action before, during or after their journey, and offers a more precise emissions calculation than before and more control over the amount of SAF versus verified carbon offsets they wish to purchase through a new adjustable slider feature. They can access the platform directly from their seat during flight using the airline’s free wi-fi portal, or at any time before or after their flight by visiting the CO₂llaborate platform accessible on ba.com. Choosing the carbon offset option supports a rainforest protection project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an energy-efficient cookstove project in Nigeria, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In a first for corporate customers, the CO₂llaborate platform will also offer a dedicated climate programme for companies to measure, reduce and manage the carbon emissions associated with their business flying. They will get access to a dashboard that shows the CO2 emissions generated from their business travel and receive monthly emissions reports. Companies will then be able to select how to address their carbon emissions by selecting specific climate solutions ranging from purchasing SAF to contributing to certified carbon offset projects. BA says the platform will enable users to track and report on their climate impact over time and learn about the climate solutions they are supporting.

“We know that many of our customers want to fly with sustainability in mind and while we work on delivering our own short, medium and long term initiatives to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, we know many of our customers want to take action today too,” said BA’s Harris. “This new CO₂llaborate platform further empowers our customers to make sustainable choices when flying with us. We look forward to working with CHOOOSE to evolve the platform as we continue to drive the decarbonisation of our industry.”

The venture-backed, Norway-based CHOOOSE describes itself as a complete platform that enables its partners to build and manage high-impact climate programmes through flexible integrations, customer-friendly interfaces, automated carbon measurement and a connected marketplace of climate solutions.

“Partnering with British Airways is a true milestone in bringing climate solutions to both leisure and corporate travellers,” commented CHOOOSE CEO and Founder Andreas Slettvoll. “British Airways has always been a north star to us in innovation in the airline industry and we are proud to support them in their relentless work on their most important journey yet, their journey to net zero.”

Image: British Airways

Two sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects in the UK have been announced that involve British Airways, one to investigate a commercial facility that would produce more than 100 million litres per year of jet fuel made from atmospheric CO2 and the other to recycle carbon from UK wood waste and turn it into SAF. Partners on the projects include US company LanzaTech and its offshoot LanzaJet. Project AtmosFUEL is a collaboration of Canadian direct air capture (DAC) technology company Carbon Engineering, LanzaTech UK, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, and is targeting a proposed facility to be operational by the end of the decade. Also with a goal of producing 100 million litres of SAF a year, Project Speedbird brings together Nova Pangaea Technologies, LanzaJet and British Airways. Both projects were recently shortlisted by the UK government to receive funding from the ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition.

Project AtmosFUEL will examine how Carbon Engineering (CE) and LanzaTech technologies can be integrated to recycle atmospheric CO2 into ultra-low carbon jet fuel. CE’s DAC technology will capture CO2 from the atmosphere so it can be fed into LanzaTech’s gas fermentation process to produce low-carbon ethanol. The ethanol will then be converted into SAF using LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) technology that was developed by LanzaTech and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the United States. The fuel, which is claimed to offer more than a 90% reduction in GHG emissions compared to conventional fossil jet fuel, will undergo certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.

“Using DAC to make SAF presents an opportunity for unprecedented scale, a key factor when the greatest challenge we face as an industry is getting the volumes of fuel we need into planes as soon as possible,” said LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren. “We applaud the UK government’s continued leadership role in creating opportunities for bringing recycled carbon into the supply chain to enable achieving Net Zero.”

LanzaTech says its first commercial gas fermentation plant has produced over 20 million gallons of ethanol and has been working with the UK government and several industrial partners on Project DRAGON to build the world’s first commercial-scale, waste ethanol-based AtJ production facility in South Wales (see article). The fuel will be used by UK-based airlines, including British Airways and long-time partner Virgin Atlantic. The feedstock for the facility will be procured from a variety of waste sources and the facility will have the ability to also use ethanol produced from local steel mill waste gases.

From a pilot plant in British Columbia, CE has been capturing atmospheric CO2 since 2015 and converting it into fuels since 2017. In partnership with 1PointFive, which has financial backing from United Airlines (see article), CE is engineering a large-scale, commercial DAC facility in the US that will capture one million tonnes of CO2 per year.

With UK partner Storegga, CE has begun engineering and design of a proposed facility in north-east Scotland to permanently remove between 500,000 and one million tonnes of CO2 per year. It would be the first large-scale facility of its kind in Europe and the partners are aiming for it to be operational by 2026.

“These types of first-of-a-kind facilities will position the UK as a world leader in advanced low carbon jet fuel breakthroughs and will deliver significant emission reductions and rippling economic benefits,” said CE’s VP Europe, Amy Ruddock.

Virgin Atlantic’s Chief Commercial Officer, Juha Jarvinen, commented: “The involvement of two leading UK airlines as partners in this project reflects how important it is to support such innovation and the role airlines play in developing a UK-based SAF production capability. We very much look forward to working with our partners over the coming months.”

Added British Airways CEO Sean Doyle: “We look forward to pushing forward with this project, which is one of many we’re working on as we head towards our target to decarbonise and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

The airline is involved in four of the eight projects that have been shortlisted to receive grant funding under the Department for Transport’s ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition (see article).

“These plants would be a game-changer for our industry, not only delivering sustainable aviation fuel but also creating many hundreds of highly skilled jobs while increasing economic growth around the UK,” said Doyle.

Shortlisted Project Speedbird, involving LanzaJet, British Airways and Nova Pangaea Technologies, which is based in Redcar, northeast England, aims to develop the UK’s first SAF production facility to utilise UK-sourced wood waste. According to the Wood Recyclers Association, the amount of waste wood processed in the UK increased by 6% to 3.98 million tonnes in 2019.

The integrated technology platform is based on Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA patented process of converting lignocellulosic feedstocks, such as waste wood and non-food biomass, into sustainable biofuels and chemicals. LanzaJet’s technology would then convert the ethanol to synthetic paraffinic kerosene and synthetic paraffinic diesel to produce SAF and renewable diesel.

“We plan to deliver the first UK-based end-to-end sustainable value chain from UK wood waste and residues to SAF,” said Sarah Ellerby of Nova Pangaea, who was appointed CEO in January 2020 following 15 years of experience as CEO of three US companies within the energy sector.

Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of project partner LanzaJet, said: “The conversion of wood waste to SAF in the UK helps decarbonise aviation and recycles carbon from local UK wood waste. At LanzaJet, we’re in a unique position with ready and scaling technology to produce lower carbon, sustainable fuels. Our partnership with British Airways and Nova Pangaea provides a novel and important integrated solution for the UK.”

Photo: Heathrow Airport

Eight proposed sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects have been shortlisted by the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) to share up to £15 million ($20m) in grant funding to support early-stage development of large-scale SAF production plants in the UK. All selected projects have the potential to reduce emissions by more than 70% on a lifecycle basis when used in place of conventional fossil jet fuel, said the DfT. The plants plan to produce jet fuel from a variety of sources including sewage; household and commercial waste; alcohol derived from wastes; and from captured atmospheric carbon dioxide. Organisations standing to gain from the funding include Velocys, Fulcrum BioEnergy, LanzaTech, Lanzajet, Advanced Biofuel Solutions, Alfanar Energy, Green Fuels Research, Nova Pangaea and Carbon Engineering, with a few of the projects shortlisted still at their feasibility stage.

Research carried out for the DfT indicates that by 2040 the SAF sector could generate between £0.7 billion and £1.66 billion a year for the UK economy, with potentially half of this coming from the export of intellectual property and the provision of engineering services. Between 5,000 and 11,000 green jobs could also be created across the nation and SAF production could also increase UK fuel security.

The eight projects shortlisted in the Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition are:

• Advanced Biofuel Solutions Ltd – ABSL will work with a British refinery and engineering company to produce a detailed engineering design for a new facility in Cheshire, north-west England. The plant will use gasification and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology to convert 130,000 tonnes of waste a year into aviation fuel.
• Alfanar Energy Ltd – The company’s Lighthouse Green Fuels (LGF) project, located in Tees Valley, north-east England, will use gasification and FT technology to convert household and commercial waste into around 180 million litres of SAF and naphtha. The project is currently completing design optimisation work ahead of starting the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage by the end of 2021.
• Fulcrum BioEnergy Ltd – The Fulcrum NorthPoint project, being developed at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in north-west England, will convert residual waste into around 100 million litres of SAF using gasification and FT technology. Funding will support the FEED stage of project work.
• Green Fuels Research Ltd – A joint endeavour between Green Fuels, Petrofac and Cranfield University, the FIREFLY project aims to demonstrate and certify a technology route to SAF from sewage sludge. Funding will support the project’s pre-FEED development stage.
• LanzaTech UK Ltd – Funding will support the FEED stage of a proposed facility in Port Talbot, South Wales, which is expected to produce over 100 million litres of SAF per year, using ethanol from biogenic wastes and industry flue gases.
• LanzaTech UK Ltd and Carbon Engineering – Funding will support a feasibility study into producing 100 million litres of SAF per year using Carbon Engineering’s direct air capture (DAC) technology, and hydrogen from water electrolysis to convert into SAF using Lanzatech’s gas fermentation and LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology. Project members include British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
• Nova Pangaea Technologies (UK) Ltd – Along with British Airways and LanzaJet, the feasibility project will study the optimal design to construct a facility that produces more than 100 million litres of SAF a year using UK woody residues.
• Velcocys Projects Ltd – The funding will support progress towards FEED of the Altalto project being developed by Velocys and British Airways to build a commercial waste-to-SAF plant in Immingham, north-east England, using gasification and FT technology.

The eight projects are understood to be assured of funding with the amounts to each to be announced very shortly and subject to contract. The bulk of the funding will go to those projects in the pre-FEED or FEED phase with around £2 million expected to be awarded to those in their feasibility stage. The GFGS funding period is a fixed term from August to the end of March 2022.

Sean Doyle, CEO of British Airways, which is involved in four of the projects, commented: “We’re determined to transform the sustainability of our industry and this potential GFGS government funding is critical in helping us to show the feasibility of building SAF plants. These plants would be a game-changer for our industry, not only delivering SAF but also creating many hundreds of highly skilled jobs while increasing economic growth around the UK.”

Henrik Wareborn, CEO of Velocys, which benefited from funding under the government’s £20 million F4C competition held in 2017, said: “We welcome this new funding as it will help bring Altalto closer to the production of SAF. The GFGS initiative highlights the importance of building SAF facilities throughout the country that will help the UK not only to meet the targets set but also make a quantifiable impact on climate change.”

Added Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of US-based LanzaJet, which is partnering on one of the shortlisted projects with British Airways and Nova Pangaea, said: “Together, we are grateful to the Prime Minister and DfT for their support in advancing the production of SAF in the UK.”

The Green Fuels Research (GFR) project with Petrofac and Cranfield University will demonstrate an integrated route to SAF using sewage sludge as feedstock and encompasses engineering design and construction of a UK demonstration plant capable of generating the quantities of fuel to allow certification to international standards. This in turn, says GFR, will lead to a first-of-a-kind commercial refinery and roll-out to several locations where airports, pipeline terminals and wastewater treatment works are in close proximity. The company says around 53 million tonnes per annum of untreated sewage sludge are collected in the UK from about 8,500 wastewater treatment works.

Commenting on the competition announcement, Green Fuels CEO James Hygate said: “We’re delighted to have this opportunity to prove the environmental and commercial viability of the FIREFLY route, which integrates several existing technologies into a sustainable industrial process. Among many advantages, FIREFLY will use fully biogenic feedstock which will emit no fossil carbon, won’t contribute to deforestation or compete with food production, and will not rely on imports with long, high-emission supply chains. And perhaps most importantly, we expect to demonstrate exceptional carbon savings, meaning this is potentially a very fast route to decarbonising aviation that won’t rely on as yet unknown technologies.”

The competition has been managed by consultants Ricardo and once the funding has been distributed, it will monitor the eight projects on behalf of the DfT.

“We have been amazed by the diversity and creativity of the entries,” said Alexandra Humphris-Bach, Ricardo Principal Consultant. “All the selected projects have a clear potential to produce SAF capable of reducing emissions by more than 70% on a lifecycle basis, when used in place of a conventional fossil jet fuel.”

The UK’s Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “Aviation will be central to our future growth and plans to build back greener from the pandemic, which is why we have invested over £20 million in the past year to decarbonise the sector in line with our world-leading net zero targets.

“With less than 100 days to go until COP26, we’re ramping up our efforts even further to help companies break ground on trailblazing waste to jet fuel plants and put the UK at the forefront of international SAF production.”

Photo: British Airways is involved in four of the eight shortlisted projects