Qantas in biofuels-from-waste venture with Solena
Sun 02 January 2011
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Australian airline Qantas is close to an agreement with US-based bioenergy technology company, the Solena Group, for the construction of a plant to produce biojet fuel for its aircraft.
According to a report in the Guardian, the plans come ahead of the entry by all airlines into the EU's emissions trading scheme in January 2012 which will penalise companies not making sufficient cuts in their emissions.
The collaboration is reported in the wake of a similar joint venture between Solena and British Airways in early 2010 to build the world's first commercial-scale biojet fuel plant in London costing 200m. Solena is also reported to be in talks with easyJet, Ryanair and Aer Lingus about building an additional plant in Dublin whilst Air New Zealand has a goal of using one million barrels of sustainable biofuels by 2013.
UK airline Virgin Atlantic has already been testing crop-derived biofuels blended with kerosene-based jet fuel. In February 2008, Virgin became the first airline in the world to operate a commercial aircraft on a biofuel blend, but this was kept at 20% in order to allay safety and maintenance concerns. There are questions from some quarters about the feasibility of sourcing sufficient waste in accessible locations to maintain the fuel supply.
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