Government launches fund for SAF production as it confirms appointment of Heathrow COO Emma Gilthorpe to head up its Jet Zero Council
The government has launched a £15m competition designed to nurture the development of a number of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facilities across the UK,with a focus on converting everyday waste into low carbon fuel for aircraft.
Launching the Greener Skies competition this morning, the Department for Transport (DfT) said projects supported by the scheme could generate tens of thousands of jobs while helping to put flight travel on a more sustainable path.
Companies pioneering new technologies that transform household rubbish, waste wood and excess electricity into sustainable aviation fuel have until the end of May to apply for a portion of the grant funding, the government said. Funding is earmarked for the early-stage development plans, such as feasibility studies and front-end engineering design, of "first-of-a-kind" fuel plants planned in the UK.
It follows the Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 10 Point Plan for A Green Revolution last autumn, as part of which he first touted plans to run a competition geared at scaling SAF production facilities.
Sustainable aviation fuels are widely acknowledged to be the most effective solution to reduce emissions flight in the short- to medium term. In November, a coalition of industry players called on the government to finance 14 "first-of-a-kind" plants able to produce sustainable fuel for the aviation sector by the mid-2030s, and just last month Essar Oil unveiled plans for a £600m plant at an oil refinery in North West England.
However, critics have questioned the scale of the emissions savings on offer from such fuels and warned that the industry could struggle to secure sufficient feedstocks to fully displace fossil fuels. Some have argued that the sector's embrace of new fuels is a distraction from the need to curb demand for flights and step up investment in zero emission technologies, such as electric and fuel cell aircraft, that can deliver more substantive emissions reductions.
Today's announcement came as the government convened the second meeting of its Jet Zero Council, the joint panel of government and industry experts launched last year focused on the development of zero emission aviation.
The government confirmed today that Heathrow Airport chief operating officer Emma Gilthorpe has been appointed chief executive of the Council, which is chaired by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
Gilthorpe's appointment is likely to rile environmentalists, given Heathrow's ongoing drive to build a new runway that is set to significantly hike up the UK's emissions.
But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the new appointments and the addition of Royal Air Force and Civil Aviation Authority to the group were part of a broader effort to "step up" the Council's ambition.
"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," he said. "That's why we're stepping up our work on the Council, recruiting new members and launching pioneering efforts to ensure that we continue to lead the world by example and deliver on our ambitious net zero targets."
The Council also counts Rolls Royce, Airbus, Shell, BP, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, sustainable full specialist Velocys, zero emission aviation specialist ZeroAvia, as members, as well as a number of research orgainsaitons, such as TechUK, Codec and the Aerospace Technology Institute.