Sustainable aviation fuel could reduce carbon emissions by 70% on a lifecycle basis. Credit: © British Airways.

A total of four aviation projects, backed by British Airways and aimed at facilitating decarbonisation, have been shortlisted for the UK Government funding.

The projects aim to help the industry achieve its targets of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

As part of the UK’s prime minister’s Ten Point Plan, the Department of Transport’s Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition will fund the development of the nation’s first sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facility.

The government has shortlisted eight projects to receive a share of $20.6m (£15m).

These are said to have a ‘clear potential’ to produce SAF, claimed to reduce carbon emissions by 70% on a lifecycle basis, when used as an alternative to conventional fossil jet fuel.

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Projects backed by British Airways transforms household and wood waste into sustainable aviation fuel and also captures carbon from the atmosphere.

The projects can move ahead with developing feasibility and engineering plans, upon completion of grant agreements.

For its Altalto project, the carrier partnered with technology company Velocys.

The project will see the construction of a commercial waste-to-SAF plant in Immingham, Lincolnshire.

This plant will have the capacity to produce nearly 80 million litres of cleaner-burning SAF and naphtha from more than half a million tonnes of household and commercial waste.

Altalto project has already obtained planning consent from North East Lincolnshire Council and is currently in the final stages of preparation for Front End Engineering Design.

Project Speedbird will be carried out through a partnership between British Airways, airline company LanzaJet and Nova Pangaea.

It aims to produce 100 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel annually from 2025, which is enough to power 2,000 flights from London to New York operated by an A350 aircraft.

The fuel will be produced using Nova Pangaea’s Refnova process, which converts waste wood into alcohol.

The alcohol is further converted into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel using LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology, which was developed by LanzaTech and the Pacific Northwest National Lab.

In addition to the Speedbird project, British Airways, LanzaTech and LanzaJet are also working together on two other projects, with each having a capacity to produce more than 100 million litres of SAF annually.

The first would see capturing of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and converting it into SAF, while the second project involves the construction of a new plant in Port Talbot, South Wales, for producing SAF from waste and industrial gases.

British Airways chairman and CEO Sean Doyle said: “We’re delighted to receive this crucial support from the Government’s Green Fuels, Green Skies competition for all these projects, which is critical in helping us to drive forward the development of sustainable aviation fuel in the UK.”