British Airways In Big Biofuel Alliance

British Airways says it has committed to purchasing the output of an aviation biofuels plant it will build in East London with Solena Fuels. The airline will spend $500 million, at today’s fuel prices, for 10 years of output; the plant will produce 50,000 metric tons of fuel annually from 500,000 metric tons of municipal waste. Solena’s process gasifies the waste and converts the resulting synthesis gas to hydrocarbons using Fischer-Tropsch reactors and catalysts from Oxford Catalysts. The plant, which is expected to be operational by 2015, will also produce diesel, naphtha, and renewable power.