British Airways has secured £9m in funding for Project Speedbird, its sustainable aviation fuel partnership.
The project involves collaboration with Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT) and LanzaJet to produce 102m liters of SAF per year by 2028.
NPT has been awarded £7.5m, while LanzaJet has received £1.5m from the Westminster government’s Advanced Fuels Fund competition.
Through Project Speedbird, British Airways aims to purchase all SAF produced, which is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 230,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to approximately 26,000 British Airways domestic flights.
The SAF will be produced by converting agricultural waste and wood residue feedstocks into second-generation biofuels (ethanol) using NPT’s technology and then converting ethanol into SAF using LanzaJet’s proprietary technology.
Initially, NPT ethanol will be processed into SAF using LanzaJet’s Alcohol to Jet (ATJ) plant in the US, followed by Project Speedbird’s own ATJ facility planned to be built in England by 2027.
Earlier this year, British Airways’ parent company, IAG, invested in Nova Pangaea Technologies to support the development of England’s first waste-to-fuel commercial-scale production facility.
IAG is also a founding investor and shareholder in LanzaJet. In August, IAG and LanzaJet agreed to purchase 14,700 tonnes of Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Phillips 66 Limited’s Humber refinery.
British Airways sees sustainable aviation fuel as a critical solution for meeting its net-zero targets, particularly for long-haul flights, and welcomes the government’s investment in Project Speedbird.
The World Travel and Tourism Council has emphasised the importance of government incentives to bridge the current gap between demand and production of sustainable aviation fuel globally.
