The Government has launched a £15m competition to find ways to reduce aviation emissions by using fuel made from household waste
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said the ’Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition brought net zero emission aviation “one step closer”.
Money from the project will be used to support companies that seek new technologies to convert household rubbish, waste wood, flue gases and excess electricity into sustainable aviation fuel.
According to the Government, these technologies could offer emissions savings of more than 70% and create up to 11,500 jobs.
Shapps said: “As the aviation sector emerges out of the pandemic and looks towards recovery over the coming months, we must put our environmental commitments at the centre of everything we do – so not only do we build back better, we also build back greener.”
The competition is open to applications until 31 May 2021. Application forms and templates will be available from 24 March.
Ricardo Energy & Environment and E4tech will run the competition for the Department for Transport.
It will look to support early-stage development of sustainable aviation fuel plants, with a focus on supporting ‘first-of-a-kind’ plants, although it will also be open to demonstration-scale projects with up to £2m in funding for projects at the feasibility stage.
Andrew Morris, chief finance officer of sustainable aviation fuel firm Velocys, said: “The launch of the ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition is another positive signal that the Government wants to invest in the sustainable aviation fuel industry in the UK.
“As Velocys continues to develop plans for the UK’s most advanced SAF facility, we welcome this move to accelerate projects like ours and to build the British SAF industry as part of a green recovery.”
Fuente: MRW