UK Department for Transportation awards Project Speedbird funding for SAF

In the UK, Department for Transportation has awarded Project Speedbird, a partnership between Nova Pangaea Technologies, British Airways, and LanzaJet, £484,000 to fund a feasibility for the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the UK.  The funding was awarded as part of the UK Department of Transport’s Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition to develop sustainable aviation fuel, announced earlier this year.

As a result, the Project Speedbird collaboration will begin early-stage development of the UK’s first integrated SAF production facility utilizing wood waste and support UK SAF sector growth by deploying innovative production technologies at a commercial scale. It will also help the UK meet its goal of reducing aviation sector emissions.

Starting in 2025, Project Speedbird will begin to recycle carbon from UK wood waste into 113 million litres of SAF and renewable diesel (RD) per year, to meet the current SAF supply-demand gap in the UK.  The fuel produced is projected to power 2,000 British Airways’ flights from London to New York operated on the airline’s A350 aircraft.

The ground-breaking Project Speedbird SAF Production Facility will utilise an integrated technology platform based on Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA® process.  REFNOVA® converts woody and agricultural residues (lignocellulosic feedstocks) into sustainable biocarbons, biochemicals, biopolymers, and drop-in for advanced biofuels. LanzaJet’s ATJ technology will then convert the ethanol into Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK), SAF, and Synthetic Paraffinic Diesel (SPD), or RD.