Construction jobs to be created for BA energy plant
Thousands of construction jobs are to be created, as British Airways has struck a deal to build the first plant in Europe to produce jet fuel from wastage. Up to 1,200 jobs will be created within the next two years, when the construction of the plant will begin.
Around 500,000 tonnes of waste will be used every year to produce 16 million gallons of fuel. BA said the plant is expected to produce twice the amount of fuel needed to power each flight from London City Airport, whilst accounting for two per cent of Heathrow's' flights.
The company says this will cut the amount of waste which is normally sent to landfill, therefore, reducing the amount of methane which is produced. Methane is said to be more of a potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The plant will be built by a US company, Solena Group, who will be providing construction jobs and BA has agreed to buy all of its output.
The plant will begin producing fuel in four years time and will take some time to start working at full capacity. Waste will be fed into an extremely hot gasifier, which will then produce the gas known as: BioSynGas. A chemical process called Fischer Tropsh will then be used to convert the gas into the efficient bio fuel.
The waste products will also supply 20MW of electricity to the national grid, as well as to power the plant.
Tanisha Sakhawat
Keywords: construction jobs