British Airways to use recycled cooking oil to fuel its planes

BA to use recycled cooking oil as fuel to cut down on emissions.

British Airlines announced on Thursday it will start fuelling its planes with cooking oil as a way to curb the airline industry’s environmental footprint.

The carrier said it will use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a low carbon intensity fuel that’s derived from vegetable oils, fats and greases, after reaching an agreement with a refinery in north Lincolnshire.

BA says the move can reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by over 80 percent compared to traditional jet fuel.

“This agreement marks another important step on our journey to net zero carbon emissions and forms part of our commitment, as part of International Airlines Group, to power 10 percent of flights with SAF by 2030,” said Sean Doyle, British Airways CEO.

“The UK has the resources and capabilities to be a global leader in the development of SAF, and scaling up the production of SAF requires a truly collaborative approach between industry and government.”

Darren Cunningham, the refinery’s general manager, said the site would be the first in the UK to produce SAFs at scale.

“We’re currently refining almost half a million litres of sustainable waste feedstocks a day, and this is just a start. Markets for lower-carbon products are growing, and this agreement demonstrates our ability to supply them,” he explained.

The aviation sector is investigating various kinds of SAFs in hopes of eventually making flying carbon-neutral.

Earlier this year in France, an Airbus A319neo plane and an Airbus H225 helicopter each fuelled one of their two engines with unblended SAF during flights that lasted three and two hours, respectively.

“With the best SAF production pathways, you can have between 80 to 90 percent reduction of CO2 emissions over the fuel’s whole life cycle, compared to the traditional aviation fuel,” says Nicolas Jeuland, an expert on future fuels and manager at Paris-based aerospace company Safran.

In regards to long-haul flights, sustainable fuels are seen as the only medium-term solution for cutting aviation emissions.

However, airlines and manufacturers have claimed electric passenger jets could be in service by 2035.