Objective

The Green Sky London project aimed at building a first of a kind alternative fuel plant in London, which would convert municipal waste into aviation fuel for use in British Airways flights from London airports.

Description

Green Sky London was a joint project from British Airways and Solena to build a biofuel production plant combining plasma gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert municipal waste in liquid fuels.

The plant, based near London, would use the city’s abundant source of waste and will also be located close to the point of consumption. It was designed to annually convert approximately 500,000 tonnes of waste normally destined for landfill into 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 50,000 tonnes of biodiesel and bionaphtha and additional power.

The business case for the project was driven around carbon pricing (EU ETS) and landfill taxes (up to $100 per ton). British Airways is committed to purchasing, at “market competitive” prices, the anticipated 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel produced annually by the GreenSky plant for the next 10 years, a financial commitment of $500m at today’s fuel prices.

Completion of the fuel production facility was expected in 2017.

As of January 2016, this project has been put on hold.

Partners

British Airways, Solena

Achievements to date

GreenSky London  signed an exclusive option on a site for the facility and consent work for the site began in 2015. Barclays was been appointed as advisor to explore the optimal funding through export credit agencies and the consortium providing the facility’s key technology functions. The plan was for Solena Fuels Corporation to provide the gasification process and the overall Integrated Biomass to Liquid; Oxford Catalysts Group/Velocys to supply the Fisher-Tropsch (FT) reactors and catalyst; and for Fluor to provide the engineering and design.

Contact information

www.onedestination.co.uk/environment/climate-change/biofuels/solena/ 
www.solenafuels.com