Wilton-based Nova Pangaea Technologies has signed an agreement with British Airways and LanzaJet that will accelerate their ground-breaking Project Speedbird initiative to develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the UK.

As part of the agreement, British Airways’ parent company IAG, is investing in the project to support the next phase of development work that will help decarbonise the aviation industry.

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Project Speedbird was initially launched by the three companies in 2021 and was granted nearly £500,000 by the Department for Transport's (DfT) Green Fuels, Green Skies competition to fund an initial feasibility study for the early-stage development of the North East project.

This work is now complete and so the next stage of development can begin. Once in operation, it would be the UK’s first SAF facility utilising agricultural and wood waste taken from sustainable sources.

British Airways intends to take all SAF produced through Project Speedbird to help power some of its flights. The SAF produced would reduce CO2 emissions, on a net lifecycle basis, by 230,000 tonnes a year. This is the equivalent emissions of approximately 26,000 British Airways domestic flights.

The fuel will be developed using a combination of leading-edge technologies based on Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA process of converting agricultural and wood waste into bioethanol and biochar. LanzaJet’s proprietary and patented alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology, the first of its kind in the world, then converts the bioethanol to produce SAF and renewable diesel.

Sarah Ellerby, CEO at Nova Pangaea Technologies, said: “This project will deliver the first end-to-end, sustainable value chain from agricultural and wood waste to SAF in the UK. It will undoubtedly play a very important role in the growing momentum towards decarbonising our aviation sector.

"The support from British Airways is a vote of huge confidence in our technology"

 

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