Yorkshire and Humber could lead the way with greener aviation - Neville Hargreaves

This is not decades away pie in the sky thinking. In fact, in just five years’ time our planned facility on the banks of the Humber Estuary could be producing enough sustainable fuel to power over 1,000 trans-Atlantic flights each year without the need to modify aircraft or engines.

Fuels like this have the potential to be game changers not just for aviation, but society as a whole as we emerge from Covid-19.

Aviation is one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonise — the energy density and performance of battery and fuel cell technologies are unlikely to match liquid hydrocarbon fuel in aircraft, particularly over longer distances.

Sustainable fuels will therefore play a critical role if we are to return to the skies, whilst also limiting emissions.

Our facility in Immingham will take half a million tonnes of non-recyclable everyday household and commercial waste each year, otherwise destined for landfill or incineration, and convert it into sustainable aviation fuels. This is done by chemically breaking down the waste through heating it up to a very high temperature and then building it back up through a series of chemical reactions to make synthetic hydrocarbons.

The new fuel will deliver a net CO2 saving of around 70 per cent for each tonne of conventional jet fuel it displaces, whilst particulate matter emissions will be up to 90 per cent lower and sulphur emissions close to zero.

Furthermore, thanks to the planned carbon capture and storage cluster in the Yorkshire and Humber region, the carbon savings from the fuel produced could be even greater.

When the necessary infrastructure is in place in the region, we will be able to capture the CO2 emitted from the waste-to-jet-fuel conversion process and deliver net CO2 savings of 200 per cent, meaning we will be able to produce negative emission fuels.

With planning permission granted for our facility by North East Lincolnshire Council in May, a new era of green flying is now on the horizon.

This would be the UK’s first sustainable aviation fuel facility and one of the first of its kind in the world, so the Humber has a fantastic opportunity to establish itself as the global hub for fuelling future air travel.

The area is already renowned for its fuel production expertise and has a highly skilled local workforce that can help deliver complex projects like ours, so is in a prime position to realise this new green industrial opportunity.

Industry coalition Sustainable Aviation forecasts that the UK could become a world leader in the production of sustainable aviation fuels, which could meet 32 per cent of the nation’s demand for aviation fuel by 2050.

The same body predicts that the development of a domestic sustainable fuels industry could generate £740m annually of Gross Value Added and support over 5,000 UK jobs. A further 13,000 jobs could be generated from the growing market for sustainable aviation fuels through global exports which could be worth almost £2bn by 2035.

With further support from Government, and continued leadership from political leaders in the Humber, the region could capture a significant chunk of these economic benefits.

Aviation will play a critically important role in Britain’s post-pandemic recovery, but it has to do this in as green a way as possible.

A new industry on the banks of the Humber could fuel this transformation – cutting carbon and creating jobs.

Neville Hargreaves is Vice President at Velocys, a sustainable fuels technology company.

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