{"id":4953,"date":"2023-11-26T21:31:51","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T13:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerstance.com\/qantas-on-brink-of-200m-biojet-fuel-joint-venture\/"},"modified":"2023-11-26T21:33:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T13:33:19","slug":"qantas-on-brink-of-200m-biojet-fuel-joint-venture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerstance.com\/qantas-on-brink-of-200m-biojet-fuel-joint-venture\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas on brink of \u00a3200m biojet fuel joint venture"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Australian airline Qantas will this month announce a deal to build the world’s second commercial-scale plant to produce green biojet fuel made from\u00a0waste<\/a>\u00a0for its fleet of aircraft.<\/p>\n Its proposed partner, the US-based fuel producer Solena, is also in negotiations with\u00a0easyJet<\/a>,\u00a0Ryanair<\/a>\u00a0and Aer Lingus about building a plant in Dublin, although this project is less advanced.<\/p>\n Airlines are trying to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels ahead of their entry into the EU’s\u00a0carbon emissions<\/a>\u00a0trading scheme in January 2012 and the introduction of other new environmental legislation. Under the scheme, any airline flying in or out of the EU must cut emissions or pay a penalty.<\/p>\n Solena’s joint venture with Qantas \u2013 which could be announced within the next fortnight \u2013 follows a tie-up with\u00a0British Airways<\/a>, signed in February last year, to build the world’s first commercial-scale biojet fuel plant in London, creating up to 1,200 jobs.<\/p>\n Once operational in 2014, the London plant, costing \u00a3200m to build, will convert up to 500,000 tonnes of waste a year into 16m gallons of green jet fuel, which BA said would be enough to power 2% of its aircraft at its main base at Heathrow. The waste will come from food scraps and other household material such as grass and tree cuttings, agricultural and industrial waste. It is thought the Qantas plant, to be built in Australia, will be similar.<\/p>\n Solena uses technology based on the Fischer-Tropsch process, which manufactures synthetic liquid fuel using oil substitutes. Germany relied on this technology during the second world war to make fuel for its tanks and planes because it did not have access to oil supplies.<\/p>\n Airlines have been using synthetic fuel made in this way from coal for years, but this results in high carbon emissions.<\/p>\n The use of biomass \u2013 which does not produce any extra emissions \u2013 as an oil substitute has more recently been pioneered by Solena. The privately owned company says that planes can run on this green synthetic fuel, without it having to be mixed with kerosene-based jet fuel. In the UK and US, regulators allow only a maximum 50% blend, and the fuel was only recently certified for use by the UK authorities. BA is understood to be exploring the possibility of using 100% biojet fuel, once it is approved as expected.<\/p>\n